Former high representatives of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Christian Schwarz-Schilling and Valentin Inzko are asking the European Commission to admit BiH ”quickly and unbureaucratically” to the European Union (EU). They emphasized this to Stoltenberg and Ursula von der Leyen as a joint appeal of the High Representatives in a letter they handed over at the BiH Consulate General in Frankfurt.
They demand guarantees from NATO that they will protect the population of BiH. They also believe that Serbia ”should be deprived of the status of a candidate for membership.”
Europeans have a moral obligation to BiH
”Serbia and Republika Srpska (RS) did not achieve their goals from the 1990s. In addition, they nurture very close relations with Russia. Therefore, we are afraid that the current aggression against Ukraine could spread to the Western Balkans, primarily to BiH and Kosovo,” Schwarz-Schilling and Inzko said in a joint letter to Ursula von der Leyen.
”The EU should admit BiH to the EU as quickly and unbureaucratically as possible,” Schwarz-Schilling said, adding that Europeans also have a moral obligation to BiH, because during the 1990s war, by imposing an arms embargo on BiH, they prevented people from defending themselves.
A peaceful Balkans – a safer Europe
Valentin Inzko believes that the events in Ukraine can move the international community to seriously address BiH and the threats of secession, although Dodik is not talking about it at the moment, and Russia and Serbia point out that they support BiH’s territorial sovereignty.
”Conditionally, we can talk about a system of merged courts. Due to that, European Union Force (EUFOR) has already strengthened its troops in BiH, which I have always asked for, although there are no or almost no German soldiers in BiH. The formula is ‘a peaceful Balkans – a safer Europe,‘‘ Inzko said and added that in the last 15 years he has not seen such great interest of the international community in BiH as now and that he is very glad about that.
Sending NATO troops to the Brcko Corridor and the BiH border with Serbia
Despite that obligation, they call on NATO and Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to provide ”strong guarantees to the people of BiH that they will not be abandoned, as they were 30 years ago.”
”No one knows what Putin’s goals are. That is why we ask you to do everything in your power to protect BiH. Its citizens must receive NATO guarantees in case the war spreads to the Western Balkans,” Inzko said.
Exclude Serbia from the candidacy for EU membership
Inzko and Schwartz-Schilling go one step further. They believe that Serbia, which refuses to impose sanctions on Russia, should be excluded from its candidacy for EU membership.
They refer to the first High Representative in BiH, Carl Bildt, who wrote on Twitter a few days ago that Serbia’s attitude towards Russia “disqualifies it from the accession process”, and that ”there is no place in the EU for countries that do not share European values.”
E.Dz.
Source: BHRT
