Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has, at least for now, run out of money from the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, a program of the European Union (EU). Politicians have been “fighting” about whose fault is it for days, but it would be wrong to amnesty the responsibility of officials from Brussels.
Of course, the biggest responsibility lies with the authorities in BiH. All the officials who had the power to decide have their share of the blame for the fact that our country was the only one in the region to run out of money (70 million euros) from the first tranche of the Growth Plan.
The blame lies with the prime ministers of the four cantons (ZDC, TC, SBC, USC) who sent “conditional consent” to the draft Reform Agenda, knowing the instruction of the BiH Council of Ministers that this was effectively a vote “against.” The blame lies absolutely with the ministers from Republika Srpska (RS), who rejected the requests of the European Commission that the document must be sent with all the agreed measures, and not without the two that were disputed by them.
Of course, their coalition partners from the HDZ and the Coalition of Three (NiP, SDP, NS) are also to blame, who accepted such a document and sent it for harmonization, without considering the fact that the prime ministers, especially bearing in mind that they come from SDA will not accept and harmonize such a reform agenda. They are even more guilty when it is taken into account that through the formation of the Working Group for the Growth Plan and its Regulations, they enabled any canton or entity prime minister to block BiH’s European path, even though they did not have to.
Part of the responsibility is also borne by the EU, but it is avoided, that is, the officials from this international organization because they had a series of omissions in the entire process, which eventually opened the door for BiH politicians to do what they do best – political fights, not work in the interest of the citizens of BiH.
Of course, the EU is in such a position that it has the possibility to condition the government in BiH in every way, because the money comes from Brussels. In addition to money, there is also EU membership, which is the only point on which all partners in the ruling coalition in our country agree.
The problem of EU accession, at least in this situation, is that it constantly opens up the opportunity for BiH politicians for amnesty from responsibility, and for eternally delaying processes that are crucial for our country.
According to information obtained, in the entire process related to the Growth Plan, EU policy was quite relaxed, without any excessive pressure on BiH. authorities. The only active involvement of the EU happened when the initial “rough” document was sent to Brussels at the end of April this year.
At that time, the European Commission sent back the necessary revisions, which included the removal of comments and criticisms that existed in the document itself, as well as the return of the disputed two measures rejected by the SNSD, which is the filling of the Constitutional Court of BiH with judges from the RS and the implementation of all decisions, and the abolition of entity voting in the State Aid Council.
After that, the EU removed itself from the process. As the election close to the events pointed out, the urgency was only coming from the EU to harmonize and send “whatever” document. It is particularly controversial that the EU has never set any time limit before our authorities, instead there was constant talk about how “there is time” and that work should continue.
It sounds somewhat unbelievable that they can expect results from Brussels without a serious approach, which would include deadlines that cannot be broken and significant consequences for the government if the document is not adopted, especially when you take into account how things work in BiH.
In diplomacy, there is a term called “carrot and stick”, which has been proven over many centuries of use. It consists of offering something good (a carrot) or something bad (a stick) to the side that is negotiating from the position of a weaker one (in this case BiH) in order to get something done.
The EU apparently believes that it is possible to have a “carrot” approach, where they are offering the BiH authorities serious money, i.e. one billion euros in aid from Brussels, without having any “stick” with which, when the process stops, they would be able to speed things up. In diplomatic terms, a carrot without a stick can be a billion euros, but it is worth almost nothing.
When it is constantly said that “there is time”, that is no motivation for BiH politicians to urgently solve a situation. If a message had arrived from Brussels that after a certain date there was no chance for at least the first tranche of 70 million euros, the authorities in BiH would have quickly forgotten their political differences and come to an agreement – we have seen this in a large number of examples in the past.
In the context of the Growth Plan, it is worth criticizing another message that came from Brussels for our country. Namely, several sources close to the Working Group of the Council of Ministers of BiH, which coordinated the work on the Reform Agenda, confirmed that they planned to accept the document from the EU, even without the two measures disputed by SNSD, and it would almost certainly freed up funds for our country.
Such a move from Brussels would be a springboard for Milorad Dodik, president of the RS and SNSD, to brag about how the EU accepted the document without the confirmation of the Constitutional Court of BiH, an issue that will obviously be in the focus of national politics for a long time.
In other words, Dodik would understand this as “legalization” of his efforts to block the work of the Constitutional Court of BiH, and this could be a dangerous precedent for BiH.
It seems that, although from Brussels “there is work to do” with BiH politicians for more than 20 years, the EU still does not understand how politics in BiH works, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
