SAROVIC: IMPOSING SANCTIONS ON BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA DELAYED

Although announced, the Energy Community has not today extended sanctions against BiH for breach of obligations under the Energy Community Treaty.

"We have succeeded, after a thorough discussion, in ensuring that no sanctions are imposed on Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our views were supported by some other Member States and there was simply no consensus at the end to vote to impose sanctions. It is my hope that the Entity authorities will use this extra time wisely and consent to the adoption of key documents such as the Electricity Law and the Decision on Liquid Petroleum Fuels. The Law on Electricity and Gas of BiH, which was submitted to the procedure by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH two years ago, needs to be urgently adopted and thus, in addition to sanctions, prevent further damage to the energy sector, but to all citizens," emphasized the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Mirko Sarovic.

The meeting agreed that the status of each country within the European Community should be considered individually in the first half of the next year.

As a reminder, the Energy Community Secretariat previously announced that the Ministerial Council of EC would extend the existing sanctions for failure to implement the measures under the Treaty, and that additional sanctions would be in the form of a suspension of rights within the Community. These measures were announced for failure to comply with the obligations under the Second Energy Package in the gas sector, for failure to comply with the Directive on the sulphur content in fuels and for failure to comply with obligations under the Third Energy Package.