Minister of Traffic and Communications of Republic of Srpska, Nedjo Trninic, said at press conference after the Government session in Banja Luka that the Republic of Srpska was not obstructing the admittance of BiH to Transport Community and was not be blamed for the blockade.
Minister Trninic said that the consequences of blocking BiH from joining the Trasnport Community may affect the process of granting the EU funds for infrastructure projects at a Summit due to be held in Trieste in two day time when the Republic of Srpska was expected to get EUR 14 million for the first phase of the construction of the Corridor VC.
“I am surprised by the positions of the ministers in the Council of Ministers of BiH who are now claiming that because of the Government of Republic of Srpska it had been impossible for the the seat of the Transport Community to be in Belgrade. We are not in contact with them and I do not know why they are doing this. I deny their allegations. The Government of Republic of Srpska is ready to discuss the terms of the Treaty”, the Minister underlined.
According to Minister Trninic, few days prior to the summit in Trieste where it was expected that the Treaty would be signed, we have a situation in which it seems that the position of the Republic of Srpska was hindering the whole agreement which is not true.
“At the same time nobody mentions that the Government of the Federation of BiH had much harder position with regard to the Draft on founding a transport community of South East Europe”, Minister Trninic said.
The Minister reminded that the Government of Republic of Srpska passed a Conclusion on its session held on 23 February 2017 that the Draft of Transport Community Treaty for South East Europe was unacceptable and that it notified the Ministry of Communications and Transport of BiH accordingly.
“We never stated that we were against the Treaty but expressed our disagreement with certain terms included in the Treaty. We had expected invitation form the Ministry of Communications and Transport of BiH to discuss the matter further but we have not received any invitation even after four and a half months”, Minister Trninic stated and added that the Federation of BiH Minister of Transport and Communications, Denis Lasic, had exactly the same position with regard to the Draft of the Treaty.
“Under the Draft Treaty which we received, we would have been obliged to secure in a very short period of time the requirements which refer to the velocity of trains such as those that exist in the EU. In case we were not able to fulfill those, we would have to pay the penalty and we know the situation in our Railways”, Minister Trninic explained.
