What would be the number of inhabitants, what would be the national and gender representation, how many young people are there in the country, and how many citizens left the country?
These are just some of the questions that Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) will not have an answer to this year because it has not conducted a population census, even though it has been exactly ten years since the last one.
The population census is one of the conditions for membership in the European Union (EU), as stated in the latest progress report. It is the country’s obligation as a candidate for membership because no country can become a member without a census.
According to the 2013 census, about 3.5 million people lived in BiH.
In the Council of Ministers, ‘no one talks about the census’
“Of the meetings I was present at, there was no mention of the population census, and I don’t think that is a topic that is a priority for anyone in BiH at the moment.”
This is what Nenad Nesic, Minister of Security of BiH, said regarding this issue. He is the leader of the DNS, a close coalition partner of Milorad Dodik’s SNSD.
Political consent is needed for the population census, emphasizes Elmedin Konakovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH and president of the NiP party, and when asked why there is no political consent and who opposes the census, he could not give a concrete answer.
“To be honest, no one ever said ‘I don’t want to do that’, but whenever we raised the issue, no one showed any great interest in it,” Konakovic explained.
He adds that the current priority is the fulfillment of 14 priorities from the Opinion of the European Commission for BiH and that he expects that the census, as part of the European agenda, could be on the agenda.
Konakovic is of the opinion that the new census would show how many citizens left BiH, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
