In a situation of blockades and disagreements between political leaders, while everyone is pulling to their own side, there will be no significant progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the way to the European Union, nor will the European Commission recommend the opening of negotiations on membership in the European Union, analysts say. While the Republika Srpska sees high representative Christian Schmidt as the culprit, even the coalition partners do not know for sure how far we are from the European path.
That we are further away from the European path is also shown by the fact, highlighted by the interlocutors, that Bosnia and Herzegovina has not had any significant reforms in the last fifteen years. Relations between political actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina have never been worse. A lot of “European” talk and meetings, without concrete action.
“BiH organized like this cannot expect any progress on the European path. We are all hostages of an abnormal political behavior here,” Emir Zlatar, Council of the Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals, says.
At the meeting in Konjic, the coalition partners once again showed that they only have a declarative agreement on the European path and the fulfillment of priorities, but in different ways.
“Just to remind you that among the EU’s 14 priorities is to solve the problem of foreign judges and reconstruct the court, so if we want to be in the EU and we want to, then let it be put together with all other issues,” according to Milorad Dodik, president of the Republika Srpska.
“From the very beginning, we chose this second scenario in which any move, any decision, any law at the level of the Council of Ministers and both houses of the parliament means a lot to Bosnia and Herzegovina because this has never happened before,” BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic explains.
The presidents of SDP BiH and HDZ BiH see the difficult political situation in the country differently.
Dragan Covic, president of HDZ: “When it comes to the future of Europe, we want to give a very practical answer to all 14 priorities, and I think that this partnership can present it through the Council of Ministers and in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.”
Nermin Niksic, SDP BiH: “There are some things on which we agree, one of those things is at least the declarative desire to lead Bosnia and Herzegovina on the path of the European Union.”
Analyst Adi Ćerimagić believes that the ruling coalition at the state level and the opposition should be harmonized and make decisions and implement reforms together.
“I would say that the cause of the problem is that in BiH we still understand politics as exclusivity, either it will be my way or it won’t be at all, and considering that we are a deeply decentralized country, it means that political life in BiH is based on how well the parties are able to persuade other parties to support their ideas,” assessed Ćerimagić.
Apart from the bickering and polemics of political leaders, Bosnia and Herzegovina has not done anything on the way to the European Union. Individual reforms are discussed only at an abstract level, and without reforms, citizens, the economy and investors are at a loss.
