Recent session of the Committee for the division of diplomatic and consular property of the former Yugoslavia, which operates in the framework of the succession of property of the former SFRY, was interrupted at the second point on the agenda, and its continuation is scheduled for the second week of March.
The reason for the interruption of the session in Skopje is an unresolved conflict between B&H and Serbia regarding the use of the embassy building and residence in Ankara.
“In order not to interrupt the work of the Comitee, we agreed with the other participants to postpone the rest of the meeting for a few weeks until we finally resolve the conflict with Serbia. We already know that we got to the embassy and Serbia got the residence. From the 1st of January 2012, Serbia was obliged to pay us monthly rent, but they never did and now its debt to B&H amounts to more than one million BAM,” said Adnan Hadzikapetanovic, Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of the negotiating team for B&H in the question of division of diplomatic and consular property of the former Yugoslavia.
According to him, he got strong persuasion by representatives of Serbia that the issue of the border facilities in Ankara will be resolved in the upcoming weeks, and then the settlement of the debt will be discussed as well.
Otherwise, B&H will use all means at its disposal in order to obtain their property. Serbia has refused to address both of these issues so far, both the delimitation and payment of rent.
In the process of succession, 72 out of the 123 properties have been distributed. The value of the remaining 51 facilities are estimated at around 190 million BAM, and B&H should get 15.5 % of the value of real estate. Part of the facilities will be handed over to the former Yugoslav republics, the rest will be sold and the money will be divided according to the same ratio as the real estates. Until the completion of the process of succession, Serbia is using undistributed or unaccepted objects.
So far, in the context of the succession of property of the former Yugoslavia, when it comes to the real estates, B&H got embassy buildings in London, Ottawa, Oslo, Madrid and Ankara, residences in Vienna and Budapest, flat in Milan and a house in Washington.
(Source: A. Sarenkapa/Faktor.ba)