Announced referendum in Republika Srpska represent a political challenge to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of B&H and, therefore, it represents a clear violation of the Dayton Agreement and will require a strong reaction from the International Community, said, among other things, Daniel Serwer, prominent American analyst and professor at the “John Hopkins” University in Washington.
Within the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Dayton it was repeatedly emphasized that B&H is at the crossroad again. Talking about the things that B&H should be doing to finally accelerate its path towards the Euro-Atlantic integration, Serwer emphasized that B&H needs functional and efficient government, especially at the state level.
“The state is responsible for the negotiation and implementation of the acquis communautaire. The government should do it. A lot of other things can be resolved at the entity, cantonal and municipal levels,” said Serwer, who participated at the conference “Focus on the reforms: 2020 vision for B&H,” which was held on Jahorina, in the organization of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS at Johns Hopkins University and the America-Bosnia Foundation in cooperation with the US Embassy in B&H.
When asked whether B&H should focus on socio-economic issues on this path, as it is provided by the Reform Agenda, and put in the second plan at least for a while the issues of constitutional reform, or the process of constitutional reforms should be again in the focus, Serwer believes that “there is no much of a choice.”
“We tried 3 times with the Constitution (April package, Butmir, Sejdic / Finci). Which of the major international institutions would like to try that again? The reform agenda has the strong support of the EU / IMF / World Bank and the support of the United States. We will see whether this will be more successful. Meanwhile, politicians can work on constitutional reforms, which are also necessary for the EU. We do not miss things that need to be fixed,” said Serwer.
(Source: novovrijeme.ba)
