All the Ambassadors of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) Steering Board, except Russia declare their full support for the High Representative’s Order of January 5, 2011, which suspends the application of the RS Law on the Status of State Property Situated in the Territory of the Republika Srpska and Under the Disposal Ban, pending a final decision by the Constitutional Court of BiH on the said law. 

Recalling that, in their communiqués of 30 June and 1 December 2010, they unanimously urged the authorities in BiH to refrain from taking unilateral actions related to the State Property issue,  the undersigned Ambassadors of the Steering Board of the PIC deplore that the Republika Srpska, by taking measures to put into force the RS Law on the Status of State Property Situated in the Territory of the Republika Srpska and Under the Disposal Ban, has undertaken a unilateral action that could complicate or prevent a negotiated solution to the State Property issue.  This move could also delay the “acceptable and sustainable resolution of the issue of apportionment of property between state and other levels of government,” one of the five objectives for the transition of OHR.  

The undersigned Ambassadors of the PIC Steering Board note that domestic challenges of the Law before the Constitutional Court of BiH have already been announced.  They view the Order of the High Representative as a necessary step to ensure that the highest judicial institution in BiH has the opportunity to decide on the request for the review of the constitutionality of this Law before any registrations of property or other measures are undertaken that could complicate subsequent efforts to resolve the State Property issue.

The undersigned Ambassadors of the PIC Steering Board remind all authorities in BiH of their legal obligations to comply with the decisions of the High Representative, as well as those of the Constitutional Court of BiH.