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Pursuant to Article 215(3) of the Law on Fundamentals of Road Traffic Safety in Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Official Gazette of BiH”, no. 6/06, 75/06, 44/07, 84/09, 48/10, 18/13, 8/17, 89/17 and 9/18) the Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued the Rulebook on vehicle registration which was published on August 9, 2022, in the “Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, no 53/22.

Article 49 of the Rulebook provides for the obligations of the Identification Documents, Records and Data Exchange Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina to, among others, procure in the transitional period vehicle document forms and license plates, issue instructions on the publication of data on serial numbers of lost, destroyed or stolen license plates, i.e. vehicle documents, establish a single information system for data entry and processing used for conducting procedures and the storage, distribution and transport of vehicle document forms and license plates, as well as the inspection of license plates to be destroyed, issue an instruction on returned license plate destruction, on the registration of vehicles used for conducting special investigative actions, while Article 45 stipulates the obligation of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina to adopt a price list of certain vehicle document forms.

Such obligations have been implemented as of August 17, 2022, with the entry into force of the Rulebook. Article 51 of the Rulebook stipulates its application as of September 1, 2022.

Following the publication of the Rulebook, many authorities responsible for the implementation of the Rulebook addressed the Ministry of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina indicating the unenforceability and illegality of certain provisions in the Rulebook, and the shortcomings therein were also indicated in letters by some individuals and legal entities.

Namely, in the application of the new Rulebook, problems arose when parties applied for the registration of motor vehicles and some internal affairs bodies carry out the registration procedure by applying some provisions of the new Rulebook, but also some provisions of the Rulebook that had ceased to have effect with the entry into force of the Rulebook published on August 9, 2022.

Moreover, with their internal acts, some internal affairs bodies postponed the application of the Rulebook adopted by the Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina, based on the Law adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, given that the procedure for motor vehicle registration may not be conducted on the basis of the currently applicable Rulebook.

The Deputy Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina had initiated and an inspection had been carried out. By the Decision of the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Administrative Inspectorate, number: UP10-07-12-2068/22 of September 29, 2022, the Ministry was ordered to align the Rulebook with the provisions of the Law on Administration within 90 days from the receipt of the Decision ("Official Gazette of BiH", no. 32/02, 102/09 and 72/17), and to inform the Administrative Inspectorate about the activities undertaken.

On September 23, the Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued the Decision to establish a Working Group consisting of representatives of the Ministry tasked to analyse the procedure for the adoption of the Rulebook in force, its compliance with the Law on Fundamentals of Road Traffic Safety in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Law on Identification Documents, Records and Data Exchange Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the objectives of its adoption, reasons and advantages of its adoption and application.

The deadline for the preparation of the analysis was 15 days from the date of adoption of the Decision to establish a Working Group. By the Decision of the Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina of October 19, 2022, the Working Group was tasked with responding to all current requests for the interpretation of certain provisions of the Rulebook, and preparing information on all issues with respect of its application, no later than within 10 days from the date of adoption of the Decision, with a proposal on how to overcome such issues, taking into account requests for clarification and interpretation, opinions, proposals and suggestions received, and submit it to the Minister's Cabinet.

In this regard, several working meetings were held with representatives of internal affairs bodies, who presented the issues in handling requests for motor vehicle registration and gave their reasoned remarks, comments, as well as the proposal to repeal the Rulebook and prepare a new draft Rulebook that would be prepared in the manner as prescribed by Article 215 of the Law on the Fundamentals of Road Traffic Safety in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which implies its drafting in cooperation with the internal affairs authorities.

Unfortunately, even after the working meetings, where almost everybody had the same remarks, comments and proposals on how to resolve the issues arising from the application of the Rulebook, the Working Group has not agreed on a common position regarding the procedure for adopting the Rulebook, nor its compliance with the Law, nor on a proposal whether to adopt a new rulebook or make some changes to the existing one that is currently in force.

On September 27, 2022, an administrative dispute was initiated before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a request for an assessment of the legality of this general act, and the proposal for the priority decision-making regarding this Rulebook.

Furthermore, by the Decision of the Personal Data Protection Agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina, no.: UPI 03-1-37-5-267-5/22 of November 18, 2022, the Ministry was ordered to remove the provisions in the Rulebook that prescribe processing of personal data, i.e. the provisions on the processing of personal ID number of vehicle owners and users in the registration certificates and vehicle ownership certificates, the provisions on the single information system for sticker tags and the provisions on vehicle records.

Given the above and guided by the principle of cooperation and coordination with other institutions, the Ministry established the necessity to repeal the Rulebook on vehicle registration, published on August 9, 2022, with the aim of eliminating all deficiencies/shortcoming observed and preparing a new Rulebook on vehicle registration in direct cooperation with the authorities responsible for internal affairs, as prescribed by Article 215 (3) of the Law on Fundamentals of Road Traffic Safety in Bosnia and Herzegovina.