A meeting was held in Zagreb between the President of the HDZ BiH and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament, Dragan Covic, the President of the SDA and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples, Bakir Izetbegovic, and the Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic.
Croatia’s strong support for Bosnia and Herzegovina on its European path was emphasized. For Croatia, as a neighboring and friendly country, the well-being, stability and security of Bosnia and Herzegovina are of the utmost importance, the Croatian Government stated, BHRT reports.
Prime Minister Plenkovic especially emphasized the importance of achieving equality for all three constituent peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as their legitimate representation in BiH institutions.
This continued the regular dialogue of the Prime Minister of Croatia with the political representatives of the three constituent peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the political and economic relations between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As Croatia has already shown by organizing the Zagreb Summit in May 2020, which focused on the EU enlargement process and the European perspective of Southeast Europe, Plenkovic reiterated that Croatia is ready to assist Bosnia and Herzegovina in reforms and meeting the necessary criteria to acquire the status of a candidate country for accession to the European Union.
The signing of the agreement on changes to the Election Law and the holding of elections in the City of Mostar was welcomed, which opened the space for further normalization and qualitative improvement of Bosniak-Croat relations.
The meeting also discussed the situation in the neighborhood, economic cooperation, investments, joint cross-border projects, given that BiH is Croatia’s sixth trading partner, as well as further infrastructural connections between the two countries.
The meeting highlighted the problematic political and public discourse of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) over the unitary and civic order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is contrary to the BiH Constitution as a key Annex 4. and increasingly prominent messages that the “Komsic case” will continue to be practiced institutionally and bring it down to other levels of government as a kind of threat to Croats as a constituent people, the HDZ BiH said.
Also, at the meeting, it was pointed out as absolutely unacceptable to call Croats a “minority” and to avoid the SDA’s political agreement on the election of legitimate representatives, as required by the BiH Constitution, which must be regulated through the currently unconstitutional BiH Election Law.
The narrative that leads the current Bosniak policy has already been seen through the failed project in the communist SFRY and the moves of the then political leadership of the Serbs and Belgrade. In such circumstances, the legitimate representatives of the Croatian people gathered in the Croatian National Assembly (HNS) are not left with too many opportunities because their interlocutors persistently refuse talks to resolve key obstacles to the functioning of the state, its institutions and any step forward in EU integration. Avoiding co-operation with legitimate Serb representatives, no matter who they are, is counterproductive to overall relations and creating a polarization that undermines the constitutional order, the party says.
