Bosnia and Herzegovina will in May next year take over the presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, and until then it should quickly implement the election results with a clear European agenda, told FENA the Head of the CoE Office in BiH Mary Ann Hennessey in Strasbourg, where she held a series of meetings with officials of the Council of Europe.
“The message of the Council of Europe to new BiH government is the same as it was before. It has not changed, except this time with more urgency, we must say that it would be useful for BiH to enter its presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe with a new government and to quickly implement the election results,” said Hennessey.
However, she stressed that it is more important to implement the election results with the European reform agenda.
“And do it in a credible way before May next year can only be beneficial to BiH and the country’s presidency of the Committee of Ministers,” said Hennessey.
When it comes to credibility of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the inevitable question is the implementation of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Sejdić – Finci case.
Hennessy says it is truly sad that the judgment has not been implemented yet. The elections have just been held without the implemented judgment, meaning without recognition of equal democratic rights for all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
She stressed that the implementation will be important for BiH presidency of the Committee of Ministers, primarily because it puts a question mark over BiH, not because of its right to hold the presidency, but because of its credibility as a leader of an organization that fights for democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
“The country has a seven-month-long period after the elections. I think it would be very difficult to explain and to justify why the presidency of the Council of Europe, as the most important duty in the membership, has not been used as an important factor to accelerate resolving of this issue before may next year,” said Hennessy.
In order to achieve this, Hennessy believes that a different approach is necessary, a much more pragmatic one than in the past five years.
(Source: Europa)
