Croatian President Zoran Milanović said that Bosnia and Herzegovina must enter the European Union with Croats as a constitutive and equal people and that it is dangerous for Croatia and the neighboring country that “entering into negotiations with the clear intention of the European bureaucracy to create a so-called civil state from BiH “, the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia announced on Tuesday.
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said at the plenary session of the European Parliament on Tuesday in Strasbourg that she will recommend the opening of accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Although he welcomes the announced opening of the neighboring country’s negotiations with the Union because he sees it as a “strategic, national and security interest of Croatia”, Milanović warns that the Croats have not yet realized their right to choose their own member of the BiH Presidency and to be legitimately represented in all government bodies in BiH.
“Furthermore, the negotiations are being entered into with the clear intention of the European bureaucracy to create a so-called civil state from BiH in which the rights of the constituent nations will be taken into account even less than today. For the Croatian people in BiH, but also for Croatia, this is unacceptable and dangerous, especially since it is to be expected that additional concessions and compromises will be demanded from the BiH authorities during the negotiation process,” the press release warns.
Croatian President Zoran Milanović believes that “BiH must enter the EU as a country in which the Croats will be a constitutional and equal nation that will choose their own representatives in government bodies, including a member of the Presidency of BiH. And Croatia, as a full member of the EU, must use all instruments – as other member states do when they protect their interests – to ensure such a status for the Croats in BiH and protect not only them, but also the strategic national interests of Croatia”.
Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenković assessed earlier on Tuesday that the opening of BiH’s negotiations with the EU will represent “one of the most important foreign policy achievements of Croatia in this mandate”.
In a press release from the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia, it is stated that the Prime Minister’s statement represents “the pinnacle of his flattery of the Brussels bureaucrats”. “It may be a success for his political career, because he has completely come to terms with Brussels’ understanding of the rights of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But for the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, such a “greatest foreign policy success of the Government” seems to have “paved the road to political hell”, added in the press release.
Milanović calls out Plenković for never using Croatia’s right to vote as a full member of the EU to protect the interest of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian national interest.
“Plenkovic is even now boasting that his partners in Brussels heard his messages related to Bosnia and Herzegovina – portraying himself as a greater Ursula than Von der Leyen – although in all these years we neither heard nor saw that he told anyone at least once in Brussels – no, while they do not guarantee the rights of Croats in BiH! Not even at a single European Council or at a meeting of his Brussels partners did Plenković reach for the right that every sovereign member of the EU has and uses. When Croatia was forbidden to participate in the EU mission in BiH or when he is the high representative for foreign affairs politician lied about the right of Croatia as a member of the EU or when his European partners legalized an illegal member of the BiH Presidency – Plenković did not even write,” emphasized the press release reported by Hina.
