Referendums in Republika Srpska

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic received Christian Schmidt in Belgrade on Thursday to discuss current developments and EU integration and development processes in the region.

As he stated, being hosted on Prva TV, he did so by the imposed decisions, because by his actions he breaks the laws and destroys democracy.
Schmidt is not recognized in Republika Srpska because his mandate was not confirmed in the UN Security Council as stipulated in the Dayton Peace Agreement.

On the request of the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, the National Assembly of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity on Tuesday passed a law declaring rulings of Bosnia's Constitutional Court non-applicable in the entity.

Bosnian Council of Ministers, the country's state-level executive government, voted on Thursday in favour of a construction of a new gas pipeline from Serbia.

The so-called Eastern Interconnection will bring natural gas to cities and towns in the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity.

The Bosniak member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Denis Becirovic, has condemned the assembly of Republika Srpska, one of two entities in Bosnia, after it called on a state Constitutional Court judge, Zlatko Knezevic, to resign from his position.

The EU and US have criticised plans by Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, president of Bosnia's mainly Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity, to push a new Russian-style law which would allow the entity to mark civil society and non-governmental organisations as "foreign agents".

Prosecutors in Bosnia and Herzegovina's Republika Srpska entity are investigating Bosnian Serb MP Jelena Doric following a complaint over her appointment as acting director of the entity's roads authority in apparent violation of a law concerning conflict of interest.

Bosnia's top court has annulled a law adopted last year by the assembly of Bosnia's Serb-majority entity Republika Srpska, saying it could undermine the authority of the state Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices by creating separate bodies under its own authority.

Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik told media after the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ruled on Monday against the declaration by the Republika Srpska parliament that the entity "is going its own way and that it will continue to do what it thinks is best for it".

Dodik condemned the ruling as "completely outside the law and the constitution".

Member of the presidency of Bosnia and Hercegovina Milorad Dodik talks at the press conference. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC.

An agreement on partnership, trade and cooperation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the UK was accepted by the Bosnian Presidency but without a consensus of all three members.