Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH’s) European path is at a complete standstill after it was granted conditional negotiator status in March. Several actors from the non-governmental sector and political life spoke about the reasons and those responsible for the standstill and blockades for agency Fena.
Plakalo: Blockades are an integral part of decision-making in BiH
The General Secretary of the European Movement in BiH, Haris Plakalo, told agency Fena that, among other things, due to the election year in BiH and frequent blockades for the sake of particracy interests, the processes of passing key reform laws and fulfilling the conditions set by the European Commission have been stopped.
”Since BiH was granted conditional negotiator status with the Union in March of this year, there has been no productivity in terms of fulfilling those reforms and adopting laws that the European Commission has placed before BiH. One of the reasons is certainly the change in the political climate due to the local elections, the campaign of which officially started on Friday, but will certainly last for a longer period of time,” says Plakalo.
According to him, we can state even this whole year.
From the laws on courts, laws in the Constitutional Court, the seat of the appellate division of the Court of BiH, as well as discriminatory laws in the field of freedom of speech and the media that were adopted in the entity National Assembly of the Republika Srpska (NARS), for which their annulment is requested, as conditions which have been set for BiH, but nothing has been fulfilled, and accordingly, the European Commission has not yet adopted a negotiation framework for BiH, which would trace the further process of opening negotiation chapters with the European Union (EU), said Plakalo.
It also reminds of the increased level of ethno-national and narrow particracy rhetoric and policies that do not have a final positive outcome for the peoples and citizens of BiH.
”Blockades are still an integral part of BiH‘s political system, and above all, if there is no political will, and it is most likely that there will not be in the future, all the countries of the Western Balkans will move hastily towards the union, and BiH, by the very fact that it is not submitted its reform program for the growth plan of the EU, it has already isolated itself on that issue, and now we are in a situation where we are discussing why the same reform program was not adopted, and not about where the 70 million euros of grants will go within the country. Although, it should be pointed out that the European Commission has never changed its position regarding the field of justice and the part about the functioning of the Constitutional Court of BiH. Therefore, omitting this measure from the reform program, i.e. erasing the filling of the Constitutional Court, respecting and implementing its judgments and decisions, is very wrong, given that even now the Constitutional Court is in a very difficult position. It is also further complicated by the fact that the law on technical regulations of the RS, although the Constitutional Court of BiH declared that law unconstitutional last year and ordered its repeal, now suddenly found itself in the reform program, marked in the section “Development of the private sector and business environment” as a reform under number 2.1.3. “Facilitating the free movement of goods and services through reduction of formalities, harmonization of the regulatory framework and mutual recognition of professional qualifications,” he said.
He emphasizes that this certainly creates an additional legal collision, because it is an issue within the framework of foreign trade policy, which according to the Constitution of BiH is within the competence of the state institutions and which is already regulated by the existing state law, thus the tendency to apply an already disputed law within the entity of the RS by the Constitutional Court of BiH, and within the Federation of BiH(FBiH) and Brcko District another, state law, leads to the danger of dividing the internal market into two parts, which is certainly one of the reasons why the prime ministers of four cantons (Una–Sana Canton USC, Zenica–Doboj Canton ZDC, Central Bosnia Canton and Tuzla Canton TC) expressed their position on the reform agenda as abstained, which was interpreted as a vote against.
He stated that this is crucial to explain to the citizens, because the issue of not adopting the reform program is perceived differently.
”This is certainly all important to emphasize so that the citizens of BiH would have a realistic and objective picture of the current processes that are blocked and the decisions as well as the reasons for which they were made in the form in which they are. Of course, we cannot demystify the fact of different influences on the attitudes and moves made by political representatives within BiH in order to create additional political instability that can often turn into security instability, given that raising tensions through “incendiary” rhetoric always leads to an increase in violations feelings and state of security. What is certain is that BiH cannot count on major developments in 2024 when it comes to European integration processes, because this election year also took away all the enthusiasm for the adoption of important priority laws and reforms, and within the political discourse we are witnessing constant accusations and shifting of responsibility, which is why all citizens and peoples living in BiH ultimately suffer, while other countries in our neighborhood are moving faster towards full membership in the EU,”concluded the general secretary of the European Movement in BiH Herzegovina Haris Plakalo.
Magazinovic: An unstoppable process
The head of the SDPBiH Caucus in the state parliament and a member of the Commission for European Integration Sasa Magazinovic says that the public should not be particularly clarified about the political reasons and those responsible for the stalling of the European path after a truly successful period.
”Everything is clear. However, what should be constantly repeated is the fact that part of the political elites are steeped in crime and that they are aware of the fact that every step closer to the EU means that institutions become more independent and that their political control will decrease,” says Magazinovic.
He emphasizes that steps forward towards the EU inevitably mean that the state becomes more capable, among other things, of dealing with crime with a political background.
”The fight for the European path is at the same time a fight against political crime. This is why the Bosnian “Sanaders” are not in a hurry to go to the EU, and therefore not to prison. No one wants to say it openly, but they find non-existent reasons to block steps towards the EU and slow down that path as much as possible. The bad news for them is that the process of European integration is unstoppable, and that the recent decisions of European institutions in relation to our country have further confirmed this,” concluded Magazinovic.
Karamehic-Abazovic: Commission without authority
Member of the Commission for European Integration Mia Karamehic-Abazovic (People and Justice) emphasizes that this commission does not currently have any powers, that is, according to the rules of procedure of both houses of the Parliamentary Assembly, they will only get them when the negotiations are opened.
Until then, the Commission has no authority except to listen to the reports of the Directorate for European Integration, coordinate work with non-governmental organizations, and listen to their ideas.
”The Commission is completely disempowered until the opening of negotiations. When the negotiations open, it will be the most influential committee of the Parliament. However, we don’t have any options until then,” says Karamehic-Abazovic.
In order to restart the European path, she believes, it is necessary to agree on four key laws: the Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, the Law on the Courts of BiH, the Law on the Protection of Personal Data and the Law on Border Control.
”Those are the four key laws that we have to pass and which were a prerequisite for us. We also need to appoint a negotiator for the negotiation process and the negotiation team, and some other minor technical details. Of course, we will bring a national program to incorporate the acquis communautaire, i.e. the legal acquis of the EU, into our legislation,” she stated.
When it comes to those responsible for this deadlock, Karamehic-Abazovic points out that those from the RS were against some solutions, especially when it comes to the Law on Courts.
”However, I think that somehow the pace was lost in the meetings, and also in those internal and external pressures to speed things up a bit. The focus has partially gone to the Growth Plan, which we still haven’t resolved. As far as I know, the task force has come to the end with a few things that still need to be resolved, but we are behind schedule. Unfortunately, the campaign for local elections interfered in all of this, which under normal circumstances should not have an impact, but it inevitably has an impact in our country,” she concluded, Federalna writes.
E.Dz.
