The Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Zeljko Komsic, is attending the European Union (EU) – Western Balkans Summit being held in Brussels. Ahead of the Summit, he was welcomed by EU leaders, after which Komsic also delivered a speech before all participants.
The President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed Komsic at the European Council building, where they briefly spoke with him and took photographs.
After that, the Summit began, at which Komsic presented, as he says, his view of the future of BiH’s integration into the EU.
“In this endeavour, I have difficulty deciding to what extent to criticise the absence of serious achievements by BiH on the path toward the EU, and how to express my disappointment and concern for the future of the enlargement process in the Western Balkans. Unfortunately, we have witnessed the failure of the Council of Ministers of BiH, in several attempts, to adopt the proposals of the Law on Courts, the Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), and the decision on establishing the Office of the Chief Negotiator, who, ultimately, must be appointed by the Presidency of BiH. How can one even comment on the failure to meet these elementary requirements, when BiH is expected to make further efforts to fulfil the 14 key priorities from the 2019 Opinion of the European Commission?” Komsic asked.
Komsic then spoke about the Draft Conclusions of the European Council on BiH, during which he praised the part referring to the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the need for that implementation not to be obstructed by other steps.
“How BiH must ‘ensure equality and non-discrimination of all citizens, primarily through the implementation of the group of Sejdic-Finci judgments delivered by the ECHR’, especially emphasising that ‘no step that would hinder the implementation of those judgments or deepen divisions must be taken’. I also fully agree that ‘the integrity of the electoral process must be improved before the holding of the 2026 General Elections’,” Komsic said.
He listed what has been achieved on the EU path in the previous period, but believes that this is not enough, because the key conditions for opening negotiations have not been met.
“Like many citizens of BiH, I believe this is too little and too slow. As the draft conclusions of the European Council note, ‘reform momentum remains stalled’. This will be reflected in the further implementation of the Growth Plan, the Green and digital agenda. I expect that the appointment of the coordinator for the Growth Plan and the IPA coordinator will become the subject of constant political battles based on ethnic distribution of power,” he said.
He then emphasised the obstructions by the HDZ, noting that the southern gas pipeline, which should connect BiH with the LNG terminal on Krk, “is being used to exert pressure on multi-ethnic political parties in BiH to adopt an Election Law that deepens ethnic divisions, contrary to the judgments of the ECHR”.
“Even the diversification of our gas supply, which currently comes exclusively from Russia, is subject to political conditionality by the ruling HDZ BiH, a Croatian party that controls local institutions in the territories through which the Southern Gas Interconnection is supposed to pass,” Komsic said.
He states that the introduction of the digital signal was also blocked for a decade, until the middle of this year, when it gradually began.
“Even so, this did not help the public media service and BHRT, which is in debt due to entity-level obstructions in revenue distribution. This could lead to the shutdown of the public radio-television service of BiH. If you ask me how to get out of all these problems and how to properly approach the challenges, I will tell you: through democracy. As I understand it, the Commission recently presented a document entitled ‘European Democracy Shield’, proposing a series of concrete measures aimed at strengthening, protecting, and promoting strong and resilient democracies throughout the EU. I believe that candidate countries for EU membership should also somehow have a role in this. I believe that one of the fundamental problems generating stagnation in BiH is, in fact, the lack of genuine democracy. Three decades ago, the Dayton Peace Agreement created a constitution in which democracy was perverted by the ethnic division of power in decision-making,” Komsic said.
He concludes that the idea of stopping the war through ethnic balance resulted in a functional imbalance in peace.
“That is precisely why two ethnic ministers can outvote their eight colleagues in the Council of Ministers of BiH and block key decisions on the EU path. Furthermore, voting in the Parliamentary Assembly requires ethnic and entity majorities that can block even proposals that pass the Council of Ministers, if they concern fragile coalitions. In the Presidency of BiH, we must have absolute unanimity on issues of the armed forces and defence, and just one conditional veto can block foreign policy decisions. That is why aligning with the positions of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy is so difficult to achieve, especially in such complex geopolitical circumstances,” the Chair of the Presidency of BiH stated.
He emphasises that all decisions on BiH’s EU path could be adopted without vetoes if the principles of full democracy were applied in BiH.
“Unfortunately, the current ethnic distribution of power prevents a genuine pro-European political majority from making decisions. At the same time, ethnic Bosniaks, who most strongly support the EU path, are falsely accused of being ‘radical Islamist’, which they have never been. The aim of such a narrative is to delegitimise their ‘European’ potential and prevent the use of full democracy. Radical right-wing, anti-European parties from the EU, the region, and their satellites in BiH strongly support this narrative with the ultimate goal of stopping BiH on its European path and making my country disappear from the political map of Europe,” Komsic said.
He believes that the plan of those who are trying to radicalise Bosniaks is actually to “block all institutions of BiH and make decision-making impossible, prevent the holding of the 2026 General Elections by disabling election financing, and initiate conflicts and promote the narrative of BiH as a failed state, waiting for a favourable geopolitical environment for the breakup of BiH”.
“It should be clear that these anti-European forces will not succeed in this, but these efforts can seriously undermine our EU path. They will not succeed because the majority of citizens of BiH are against such a scenario, regardless of ethnic affiliation. Recent public opinion research shows that 70 percent of citizens of BiH support EU integration. This is so because democracy and the dream of a European future for BiH must, and will, prevail – the dream that democracy in Portugal, Germany, and BiH means the same,” Komsic concluded, Klix.ba writes.
