After the meeting in Brussels, limited optimism, promises, and by the old matrix, different interpretations. For some the meeting was successful, for others, the document was not bad, and for others, the format was missed.
”It is about Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) moving on its European path, and doing things beforehand that will move us. Stopping the blockade, calming the crisis in BiH. Fulfilling some fundamental, basic conditions, such as adopting a couple of laws on the European Union (EU) path, and that’s it,” said SDA President Bakir Izetbegovic.
”No spectacle should be expected. It is not the first time for us to sign some agreements that no one abides by. It was much more important today that we realize that we have a wind at the back by the EU administration and that we are really serious about reforms,” stated yesterday SDP President Nermin Niksic.
How do you step forward with those who have been dragging back for years? Those who did not support the document are wondering; Branislav Borenovic and Nenad Nesic. The flight seems to have been crucial. Politicians from Republika Srpska (RS) left separately, disunited, and performed.
”The pinnacle of a hypocrite is accepting that 6 months after the election you will adopt the Law on Prevention of Conflicts of Interest, the Law on Public Procurement, and the Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PABiH) thanks to, primarily, us from the opposition, and which was stopped by the SNSD and HDZ in the House of Peoples,” says PDP President Branislav Borenovic.
Borenovic led the election campaign in Brussels, the harmonious trio angrily added. Unlike him, they say, they defended the interests of RS. The day after, they brag that they avoided condemning the Russian invasion, and not only that.
”Our request of the three of us was to add in that part a constitutional provision according to which BiH consists of two entities and the Brcko District and three constitutive orders and to list these peoples. We see that some are triumphantly trying something in the Federation to get away, like my colleague Komsic, who was blabbering on like crazy. But he was the most nervous, he was the worst. That document was his biggest defeat,” believes Milorad Dodik, president of the SNSD.
Komsic responds in the same triumphant tone. He says that Dodik agreed to the document which envisages the abolition of the House of Peoples. The document, he explains, consists of two parts. The first introductory, it is true, is the current constitutional and political system of BiH. But there is another part.
”The second part, which is much more important, talks about what BiH should be like if it wants to get candidate status for the EU. In the second, a more important part of the document, there is no ‘legitimate representation’ or ‘constitutive’ (except in the preamble derived from the BiH Constitution) because it is not part of European standards,” said DF President Zeljko Komsic.
And the bearer of European values, as he often calls himself and his party, did not attend the negotiations on BiH’s European path. Dragan Covic, instead of in the hall, was in the Brussels room. But he did not want to be at the negotiating table. He believes that the format was missed, and the offered document was written under a veil of secrecy. These are some of the reasons. The key one, however, is Zeljko Komsic.
”I will not sit in the same hall with two Bosniak members of the Presidency, so let them translate as they wish, and especially to sign a document with them that should define the position of the Croatian people in BiH. That the election law is being talked about 6 months after the establishment of the government. The key question is how will you make authority if you do not have key provisions in the election law. That is what had to be done as a matter of priority.”
That is why the day after, Covic sets the condition. He demands that the electoral reform be resolved urgently instead of in 6 months. In that case, he will support the document that he did not support three days ago. And that is not the end of the conditions. He also demands a correction of the document in the part where the leaders committed themselves to holding free, and democratic elections. In that part, he asks for the addition of the part that reads in accordance with the Agreement on the Implementation of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, signed in Brussels in 2013, as well as in accordance with the Mostar Agreement on the 2020 Election Law. Covic’s conditions or wishes in BiH probably do not surprise anyone, the only question is how will official Brussels react to them?, Federalna writes.
E.Dz.