The Agencies monitoring Property Law Implementation in BiH wish to announce the PLIP statistics for the month of June 2003.
At the end of June, 189,994 claims out of 226,057 had been resolved by the housing authorities. This corresponds to 84 percent of the overall number of property claims. Since the beginning of 2003 there has been a steady increase of two percent every month.
The Republika Srpska has now achieved 80 percent, the Federation 86 percent and Brcko District 92 percent of property law implementation. Since the beginning of the year the RS has increased its property law implementation ratio by three percent every month. This progress is welcome and is in line with the strategy that aims to complete property repossession process by the end of 2003, as required under the New Strategic Direction.
Problems continue to be encountered in both Entities, however. In the Republika Srpska, Banja Luka in particular appears to be facing major delays in resolving all property claims by the end of 2003. This municipality must accelerate its work in order to meet the targets set out in the New Strategic Direction.
Similarly, in the Federation in the last six months the overall implementation ratio has been below two percent per month. In particular, in the last two months, the monthly increase has been just one percent. As a result, some municipalities might not be able to complete the repossession process by the end of the year.
The goal of substantial completion of Property Law Implementation by December 2003 is within the reach of all the municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, even those that are currently lagging behind. Municipal and Entity authorities must ensure that resources are in place to achieve this goal, which would represent one of the major achievements of BiH in the post-war period.