Bosnia and Herzegovina

The 16th century Emperor’s Mosque in the town of Foca, which was badly damaged by Bosnian Serb forces during the war in 1992, is to be reconstructed.

Experts, professors, intellectuals and politicians met in the Bosnian parliament on Tuesday to debate what the country should do over the issue of Sutorina - a coastal area in southern Montenegro that some Bosnians say should belong to Bosnia.
 

A declaration was adopted by Bosnia and Herzegovina's parliament on Monday, stating the political willingness of he country representatives to comply with EU criteria for member accession.

A number of reforms were to be implemented in the country in order for the process to be facilitated, as reported by the Balkan Insider.

Bosnian parliament adopts statement on EU

SARAJEVO -- Both houses of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia-Herzegovina have adopted a statement on reforms and the country's EU orientation.

This statement is in accordance with the requirements of the British-German initiative on Bosnia's progress towards the European Union.

Both chambers of Bosnia and Herzegovina's parliament - the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples - adopted the declaration which unblocks the country's path to the EU at separate emergency sessions on Monday morning.

The breakthrough came hours before the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, was due to arrive in Sarajevo.

The President of the the Bosnian parliament's commission for foreign trade and customs, Semsudin Mehmedovic, told Balkan Insight that Bosnia is in the final phase of preparing to join the World Trade Organization, WTO, which will bring benefits in international trade.

Four months after Bosnia's general elections, the leaders of the six parties that make up the ruling coalition at the state level have agreed on the distribution of ministerial and deputy ministerial seats in the new government. 

Four young men who were illegally collecting coal in a surface mine near the northern industrial town of Tuzla were killed in a freak accident over the weekend, after being buried by a landslide triggered by a small earthquake.

The accident took place around midnight on Saturday, when northern Bosnia was hit by a minor earthquake with a magnitude of 3.3 on the Richter scale.

Ethnic Montenegrins comprise 45 per cent of the country's citizens but have just over 82 per cent of the jobs in the public administration, according to new government study.

Ethnic Serbs make up 28 per cent of the population but have only 7.3 per cent of the jobs on the state payroll.

An elderly Bosniak refugee who returned after the war was ordered to pay compensation to a Serb family who occupied her house in a village near Visegrad and renovated it in her absence.