To all those who today point out that this is the biggest crisis in BiH since the establishment of Dayton, I would like to say that I remember everything, and that this is not the case, said Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament Dragan Čović at a conference marking the 30th anniversary of Dayton, which was organized in Zagreb on Friday by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia.
The third and final panel of the conference “30 Years After Dayton: Leading the Way with Local Solutions”, which discussed the historical circumstances of the signing of the Dayton Agreement, the current situation in BiH, and prospects for the future, hosted current political actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament Dragan Čović.
One of his conclusions was a response to the recently frequently emphasized statement that BiH is currently going through one of the biggest crises since the signing of the Dayton Agreement.
“To all those who point out today that this is the biggest crisis in BiH since the establishment of Dayton, I say that I remember everything, so I say that this is not the case after all. I would just go back 25 years ago, when the pressure of international institutions led to the fact that High Representative Petrić sanctioned 180 Croatian officials at all levels. That was a real crisis. Or let’s remember how tanks got into Hercegovačka banka. Then the system was broken, with that economic coup,” said Čović.
He added that the Office of the High Representative (OHR) must be closed as soon as possible and the issue of state property must be resolved, because imposed decisions block a number of large financial projects, which means that, as he emphasized, “the BiH economy has no chance in these circumstances.”
He emphasized in this context that the Southern Gas Interconnection project is of key importance for Croats and the whole of BiH, but that in his opinion it would be best to “give a concession to the Americans who would protect their investments and finish it quickly”.
BiH Presidency Member Željka Cvijanović emphasized in her presentation that BiH simply does not function, and agreed with Čović on the issue of the influence of the international community.
“Thirty years after Dayton, it is time to draw a line and see what needs to be done in the future. If ‘roses had bloomed’ for us, there would be no need to draw a line, we would be moving forward, but it is clear that the state is stuck in its failures, unable to achieve basic political dialogue,” she said.
She added that she was pleased with the initiative to insist on local solutions and that this was the only way out for BiH, but still emphasized that there was more optimism in the first years after Dayton than today.
“In the end, we got a distorted reality, because the Constitution says one thing, and the reality is different. BiH was and remains an experiment, because the High Representative under Dayton is not a legislator, and in practice we got exactly that, a sea of laws without parliamentary support. We are at a turning point, either we will agree on how to proceed, or let the matter fail,” concluded Cvijanović.
BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković especially thanked the Government of the Republic of Croatia and Andrej Plenković, who, as he said, strongly lobbied for BiH on its path to EU integration, but in his response to the positions of Presidency member Cvijanović, a sharp political discussion developed.
“The SNSD is currently the closest of all the parties in Europe to the Putin regime,” he emphasized, and underlined that he is also ‘in favor’ of shutting down the OHR, but that the conditions must be met.
“Nine hundred OHR decisions have been implemented, and now the view is emerging that it was not good for BiH. The OHR is something that Bosnia and Herzegovina needs precisely because of its Dayton Agreement. It is experiencing its strongest crisis so far, due to the SNSD’s attack on its constitutionality. The time has come to say that Dayton is not good, but many are playing with fire, going back to the nineties,” said Konaković.
Member of the European Parliament Željana Zovko also spoke, pointing out that “an atmosphere about BiH has been created in the EU that political Sarajevo is not aware of.”
“I think it is clear to everyone in the EU Parliament that there is a lack of will regarding the restructuring that would make BiH functional. Something must change so that the three nations can find their way and BiH can function,” concluded Zovko.
