Presidents of the four Parliaments from countries signatory to the Dayton Agreement, their associates and co-presidents of Igman Initiative held a meeting on June 10th at the Parliament of the Republic of Srpska. Nebojsa Stefanovic, President of the Parliament of Serbia, Ranko Krivokapic, President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Josip Leko, President of the Parliament of Croatia and Bozo Ljubic, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina attended the meeting, together with Igman Initiative co-presidents, Aleksandar Popov from Serbia, Vehid Sehic from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Zoran Pusic from Croatia. Participants of this meeting have agreed on future steps which are to be taken in the framework of joint engagement on improvement of inter-parlimentary cooperation based on Nordic model experiences. At the beginning of the session, co-presidents of Igman Initiative have informed the participants about the previous agreement made with Ranko Krivokapic to organize the session in June in Cetinje with the four Presidents that were to sign a joint statement of support for improvement of cooperation based on the Nordic model and define spheres and modalities of this cooperation. However, due to the complicated politicial situation in Montenegro created after presidential elections and the refusal of the opposition to accept Filip Vujanovic’s electoral victory that option was cancelled. Bozo Ljubic, Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina at that time, took up the task of hosting the meeting, but citizens’ mass protests held in front of the Parliament because of issues related with citizen registration numbers blocked his operation and cancelled out that option as well. There was no more room for a third option for a June meeting. Hence, Igman Initiative initiated this working session in Banja Luka and Igman Initiative’s co-presidents thanked the four Parliament Presidents for answering the call. In order to make this cooperation official already in this phase of the project, it was agreed that all four Parliaments should adopt a Letter of Intent to Establish Cooperation in June. Each of the Parliament Presidents should initial the given Letter during the lobbying proces and visits of co-presidents of Igman Initiative in the same month. It was also agreed that the Igman Initiative’s thematic session with the four Presidents should be held in Sarajevo on 20th of September. On that occasion, Letter of Intent should be transformed into a Joint Statement signed by the Presidents.
Co-presidents of Igman Initiative also informed the Presidents of Parliaments that the final presentation of reports and recommendations provided by the Igman Initiative’s expert team in the framework of this project will be held on June 30th and July 1st in Zagreb, on the occasion of the Igman Initiative session with Presidents of Dayton Quadrangle countries. First panel of this session will be exclusively focused on improvement of inter-parliamentary cooperation based on Nordic model experiences. Representatives of the four Parliaments will also take part in that session. In this respect, representatives of Igman Initiative informed the Presidents that they have already forwarded the requests for Parliament delegates to this session. Their presence will be also used for the purpose of organization of the Igman Initiative’s thematic session which is to take place in Sarajevo on Septrember 20th , as well as for the purpose of devising programs for future activities arising from the Letter of Intent.