European officials have decided to do what has long been needed – to bring Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) leaders to one table and try to get them to commit to BiH’s European future. Like a bolt out of the blue, European Council President Charles Michel announced that he would host the leaders of the parliamentary parties from BiH in Brussels today, June 12th.
A new map for the European Union (EU)
Brussels intends to offer BiH leaders a document to sign that could significantly determine our country’s further path toward the EU. Although the EU still insists that BiH meet 14 priorities for candidate status, this meeting could announce a new road map for our country, which Michel announced during his recent visit to our country.
Unofficially, the document being prepared by Brussels has at least 12 points and will define a roadmap for BiH in order to obtain candidate status.
The presidents of the SDA, HDZ, SNSD, DF SDS, NiP, Nasa Stranka, SDP, and HDZ 1990 should travel to Brussels. However, although the politicians themselves are not familiar with all the points, the example of Michel’s call once again brought to the surface all the mutual political conflicts and animosities in BiH.
We’re arguing again
Zeljko Komsic said he was ready to sign a document that would support the implementation of 14 priorities from the European Commission’s Opinion on BiH’s candidate status for membership in the EU, but not to sign any statement that would mean distancing BiH from implementing the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, especially not after the European Parliament expressed support for a civic BiH, clearly alluding to possible changes to the Election Law that would introduce a different way of voting in the Federation of BiH (FBiH).
Dragan Covic, on the other hand, said that it “does not occur to him” to sign any joint document with Komsic in Brussels, regardless of its content.
Milorad Dodik, on the other hand, emphasized that he would not sign the statement if it condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The fact that of all the possible issues and points, Dodik pointed out this as the biggest problem, clearly indicates what he considers a priority at the moment, that is that he is a reliable Russian man.
Things are bad but positive
The reactions of the leading leaders to this call at the beginning send a pessimistic picture that the expectations of any agreement between them and the progress of BiH are a lost job in advance. But there is no need to despair. Namely, negotiation is in itself a necessary step to start any positive change and dissolve the hard positions of politicians on which they must persevere in order to justify the policies on which they built their identities in the previous decade.
However, recent moves by the international community with sanctions and the use of Bonn powers have shown how little needs to be done to partially rationalize domestic political boors and halt their destructive policies, as shown by the examples of Dodik’s withdrawal from the transfer of competencies or the HDZ’s withdrawal from the announced boycott and blockade of elections.
That lesson seems to be understood now, and the war in Ukraine has sounded the alarm that BiH must not be left stranded. If anyone should not have been allowed to take a radically opposite path from the European one, it was BiH, where the United States (U.S.) and the EU had more than enough of their own mechanisms to prevent such trends. And BiH, especially for the EU, should have enormous symbolic values. If it is not possible to establish a functioning state of three nations and three denominations in small BiH and if the EU is unable to motivate BiH politicians and key social actors to be committed to this goal, then how can Europe with so many peoples, religious groups, cultures, and historical conflicts be possible?, Avaz writes.
E.Dz.
