by Sasa BIZIC
Amateur linguists: The document should be adopted by a simple majority as a series of amendments to the constitution of Srpska at a session of the Srpska Parliament in late May or in early June. During the summer a public debate would follow, based on which the Constitutional commission would prepare the final version of the amendments. That final version would again have to be verified by the Srpska Parliament, this time by a two-thirds majority. Then follows the final stretch, the alignment of the amendments in both entities, under the OHR coordination.
The way things stand now, the amendments will encompass about fifteen articles of the Srpska Constitution. Half of them will be totally removed, such as the provision for state assistance to the Serb Orthodox Church or about the jurisdiction of the National Bank of the Republic of Srpska. The key detail, the definition of Srpska as one of two entities in Bosnia-Hercegovina with constituent nations Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks and others will be in the preamble of the constitution, instead of in article 1. The Srpska government advocated the former option while the Bosniak representatives gave up their insistence on the latter option because their demand that all three nations be explicitly mentioned in the introductory part of the Srpska Constitution was fulfilled.
The Serb, Croat and Bosnian languages will be in the official use, which will later be defined by law, and all three will individually be official for members of the nation according to which they were named. The dilemma "Bosniak" or "Bosnian" language drew a lot of attention of the members of the commission because non-Bosniaks in this body challenged the right of Bosniak amateur linguists to name their language after the country shared by two other constituent nations. The challengers did not find the approval of the mediators from abroad.
Concessions: The protection of vital interests of constituent nations will be carried out in the triangle consisting of the Commission for Constitutional Matters, the Constitutional Court and a separate four-member council of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Srpska. If three or five out of all together 17 members of the Constitutional Commission of the Republic of Srpska (four Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks each and three representatives of others) assess that a certain proposed law can be harmful they will have an opportunity to request protection of vital interest, which is defined as the "interest that allows constituent nations to protect and develop their identity and to be protected from every means of discrimination".
If consensus about the endangerment of vital interests cannot be reached in this Commission, the case will be forwarded to the Council of the Constitutional Court consisting of one member each of the three constituent nations and others. The Council will make decisions by simple majority and the president of the council (a rotating office that will change every six months) decides in case of a draw (2:2). The current president of the Commission for Constitutional Matters of the parliament of Srpska, Miroslav Mikes, says that this formula is a result of numerous concessions made by all sides in the process. "Bosniaks and Croats gave up their demands for the bicameral parliament, a three member presidency, a mandatory deputy prime minister from the ranks of non-Serbs, constitutional court membership based on parity and proportional participation in the authorities. Serbs also made essential concessions."
By the way, parity in the Constitutional Court, which will have nine instead of seven members, implies equal ethnic representation and proportional participation in authorities implies that the number of Bosniak and Croat state employees should correspond to their numbers on the territory of Srpska in according to the 1991 population census.