The European Union assessed that the current government at the state level in the past nine months, by adopting several reform laws, achieved great progress on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s European path. In November, the European Commission will discuss the expansion of the Union, and it is to be expected that this progress will be rewarded by the opening of negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina. All of this, however, could be threatened by the latest blockade of the state Parliament, because the parties from Republika Srpska condition the adoption of all laws on the resolution of the issues of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“We are strongly advocating that already in December of this year, the Council will be able to make a decision on the opening of negotiations with BiH. I really believe that this would be the right way forward,” says Andreja Metelko-Zgombić, State Secretary for Europe in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia.
This European message clearly showed BiH’s support on the way to the European family. Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Greece in a joint letter to the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security expressed their strong support for the efforts made by BiH in the last few months on its European path, which should be rewarded. However, everything could fall apart if the blocking of the passing of the law in the state Parliament continues due to the insistence of residents from Republika Srpska that the issue of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina must be resolved first. And at the cost of Euro-Atlantic integration.
“We hope for a reasonable period in which colleagues from the Troika and everyone else will see that the Law on the Constitutional Court must be adopted, that the Office of the High Representative must be finished, that it must be transferred to the EU Office if we want to stay on track accession to the EU. Because the European Union is not accessed through the OHR,” says the president of the United Srpska Nenad Stevandić.
Although he is part of the ruling coalition with parties from Republika Srpska led by SNSD, HDZ BiH leader Dragan Čović does not think blackmail is a good policy, regardless of who it is.
“Within BiH, we have the problem of this dysfunctionality, of our insufficient determination to take responsibility for enacting laws, to arrange that society to move towards some European standard of behavior, regardless of when we will open the negotiation process, when we will enter the EU,” Čović points out.
The opposition in the state Parliament points out that every positive step is followed by blockades, and that as soon as laws are adopted that mean EU approximation – as a rule, difficult political problems arise that cannot be solved in a short period of time.
“I believe that first of all, political opportunists in Bosnia and Herzegovina must be eliminated who are actually declaratively advocating membership in the EU and NATO, but in fact they are doing everything to prevent that from happening. This is the case this time as well,” states Šemsudin Mehmedović, MP in House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
That the European Union and the Council of Europe continue to support the efforts of BiH institutions to harmonize with European standards is the message they sent. They point out that significant results have been achieved that enable the continuation of activities on the reform path of BiH in the field of human rights, rule of law and democracy. As part of the Third Phase of the Program until 2026, the European Union and the Council of Europe allocated 4.5 million euros for six projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That phase also includes two new topics – the fight against economic crime and strengthening the quality and efficiency of the judiciary. This is a task that BiH must fulfill in order to take a step further on the EU path.
