BOSNIA NEWS

BANJA LUKA,Bosnia – The Bosnian Indirect Tax Authority (ITA) has become the 39th member of the Intra-European Organization of Tax Administrations (IOTA). The Bosnian Indirect Tax Authority jointed IOTA at the Organization’s General Assembly in Varna, Bulgaria,ITA said.

Membership in IOTA brings great opportunities and possibilities for the continuous education and training of the Bosnian Indirect Tax Authority personnel abroad at seminars and workshops across Europe.

IOTA is a non-profitable organization established to support the tax administrations of the European countries in improving the efficiency of their activities.

The decision to establish the organization was issued at the Conference of tax administrations of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries in Warsaw in October 1996.

IMF, EU, USA and other international organizations unanimously supported the decision to establish this association.The IOTA Head Office is in Budapest,Hungary.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - The OSCE Mission to Bosnia,in cooperation with the Movimiento por la Paz el desarme y la Libertad, a Spanish non-governmental organization, presented a study analysing the legal problems faced by refugees and displaced persons in Bosnia,Croatia and Serbia . Entitled Access to Pertaining Rights and (Re) integration of Displaced Persons in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia 2006, it also outlines some human rights problems that refugees and displaced persons face today, OSCE said.

In his remarks at the beginning the presentation of this study, Ambassador Douglas Davidson, Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia, connected the study to the regional returns initiative known as the “3 x 3” or Sarajevo process. The signers of the Sarajevo Declaration, which began this initiative, he noted, themselves expressed the desire to clear the remaining impediments to return by the end of 2006.

Having failed to agree on what these impediments were, much less on how to remove them, they have unfortunately, also failed to meet their own goal,Davidson said. According to Ambassador Davidson, one of the particular benefits of the study was that it identified the bureaucratic and legal obstacles that still block return, such as the difference of opinion in the countries concerned over whether occupants and tenants of formerly socially-owned properties still retain rights to them.

The Study was drafted by a regional network of non-governmental organisations constituting the Regional Legal Assistance Programme, which is funded by the US government.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – Members of the Bosnian Presidency and Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Kinga Goncz discussed in Sarajevo the state of bilateral relations and cooperation, as well as foreign policy priorities of the two countries.

They agreed that relations between Bosnia and Hungary are very good, that the two countries do not have outstanding issues and that they should continue to develop in a similar vein in the future as well. It is important to give a new boost to the development of economic, cultural and other forms of cooperation, which will promote common interests in the best possible way.

The Bosnian Presidency Chairman Nebojsa Radmanovic said that mutual visits and contacts at the senior level are regular and that the Bosnian Presidency expects a visit by the Hungarian President.

Minister Goncz informed the members of the Bosnian Presidency that Pecuh will become the European cultural capital in 2010 and invited Bosnia to present and promote its vast heritage.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – A meeting on the topic “Constitutional Position of Croatians in Bosnia and Constitutional Reforms” was held in Sarajevo.The meeting was initiated by a member of the Bosnian Presidency Zeljko Komsic.

Representatives of political parties, Catholic Church and cultural and scientific institutions attended the meeting. Participants concluded that “the constitutional position of Croatians in Bosnia is dissatisfactory and unsustainable” and that “a comprehensive constitutional reform is necessary. That new constitution should enable Bosnia to become a democratic state of Europe with full respect and implementation of individual, national and human rights”.

Participants also stated that they will take full responsibility for the fate of Croatians living in Bosnia in a positive sense of the word and that they will intensify talks on these and similar topics in the following period.

They agreed that HDZ BiH will organize the next meeting. HDZ 1990 is to follow. The meeting was characterized with many constructive proposals and suggestions.