As it was found out, the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Christian Schmidt is supposed to meet with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic in the upcoming days, Klix.ba writes.
Schmidt will meet with Plenkovic at a time of great political crisis, largely generated by failed attempts to reform the election law.
The visit to Zagreb comes at a time when the General Elections are expected to take place in the autumn of this year. The Central Election Commission (CEC) is expected to call the elections on May 4th. That is why the HDZ is indignant, believing that without changes to the election law, there are no conditions for the elections to take place.
What is a problem and which will probably be one of the topics at the meeting between Schmidt and Plenkovic is the non-adoption of the state budget, from which it is necessary to allocate 11.7 million BAM for the needs of organizing the elections. The CEC has repeatedly asked the Council of Ministers to set aside money from the budget reserve in order to organize the elections on time, but the Council of Ministers does not agree on such a thing.
Minister Vjekoslav Bevanda (HDZ) seeks explanations and justifications for the need to adopt the budget through a regular procedure. But, the regular procedure is a process that can take much longer, and the CEC needs money for the elections immediately.
So, it remains to be seen whether Schmidt will be ready to reach for the Bonn powers in that segment as well, in order to provide money for the elections. And given earlier statements about the imperative of holding elections, that option should not be ruled out either.
Election law will inevitably be one of the topics, especially the move of the HDZ, which on Tuesday and yesterday in the House of Peoples tried to push through the adoption of its proposal. In this context, the clear position of the United States (U.S.)Embassy in BiH and the Delegation of the European Union(EU), which assessed the mentioned HDZ proposal as maximalist and contrary to EU standards, should be emphasized.
On Tuesday, the Americans directly called out the HDZ that, with the support of the SNSD, they inappropriately wanted to use the urgent procedure to submit take-or-leave proposals for electoral reform that were previously concluded to be contrary to EU legal and human rights standards.
They pointed out that the mentioned proposal represents further ethnic division and other regressive elements.
Such direct messages and provocations are more than a clear message that it is difficult to reach a compromise in the current circumstances, so the key issue that follows is the holding of elections. In this segment, the role of Christian Schmidt is perhaps crucial, and a visit to Plenkovic should be considered in this segment since he can influence or advise Covic on how to act.
It is interesting that the High Representative recently visited Belgrade, where he talked with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic about the Bonn powers which he used to stop the entry into force of the Republika Srpska (RS) property law.
E.Dz.
