Polarization in BiH society is only one of the reasons why there has been an almost complete standstill on the road to EU integration. This complicates and delays long and arduous processes. The chapter – the rule of law contains tens of thousands of pages of legal regulations, with which BiH legislation must be harmonized before the opening of the actual negotiations. This is a message from the round table in Banja Luka, where the topic was precisely human rights in the context of negotiations on joining the EU.
BiH’s European path is currently at a complete standstill, political stumbling blocks are the main reason as before, while experts say that some progress may happen after the upcoming local elections, because for all parties it is more important than reforms. When it comes to the first chapter – the rule of law – we will, as things are now, especially to work hard.
ALLEN BOW, Coordinator of the initiative for monitoring the European integration of BiH:
Specifically, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have noticed that a significant part of the law is adopted according to an accelerated procedure, through non-transparent processes, where we have no insight into the processes that are taking place, and only civil society can influence to see what kind of processes are involved.
Teak Pokrajčić, House of Human Rights Banjaluka:
As we speak, BIH will have to adjust its legislation with over 170,000 pages, not passing reform laws is a test of intelligence for our politicians because everything is dragging on, because as we speak, the EU is passing new directives and new legislation.
Listening to experiences from neighboring countries, in this case the civil sector from Serbia, polarization is also present in our country, which significantly, if not essentially, hinders reform processes, so the talk of European integration is used more as political marketing than the real goal to be pursued.
Bojana Selaković, coordinator of the convention on the EU in Serbia:
This stagnation is the consequence of a kind of polarization, on the one hand official state policy which is declaratively pro-European and that this is a strategic goal, and in practice everything that is being done refutes these aspirations.
While Bosnia and Herzegovina has not even started negotiations yet, it is an illusion, according to experts from Croatia, that the process of the rule of law itself will be completed with the accession to the EU, which, as they point out, was demonstrated by the example of themselves in 2016 and the daily speeches. However, significant differences they already exist now.
Ivan Novosel, House of Human Rights Zagreb:
The entry of HR into the EU meant, realistically speaking, betterment for the citizens both in some economic sense, and in some sense of legal security and let’s say general democratic life, which also means respect for human rights, and it is better to be inside than outside it.
Suffice it to say that according to the Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project, Bosnia and Herzegovina fell to 75th place out of 142 countries, which is the worst result since 2015 without any noticeable progress in any of the areas that affect the assessment of the degree of the rule of law in the country.
