Where is Bosnia and Herzegovina today, what characterizes the current political situation and what are the challenges on the way towards membership in the European Union. What is the standard of living and respect for human rights, and how pronounced is the rhetoric of division?
Today, in the year 2023, Bosnia and Herzegovina, thanks to the policies of division, is not a country from the referendum question. Those who, after the end of the war, believed that in the next 30 years Bosnia and Herzegovina would build institutions that lead to a modern, European state.
“BIH is a state torn between Dayton and Brussels. Dayton affirms the policies of division, and Brussels asks us to build a civil state, which is really difficult at the moment”, says Miro Lazovic, participant in the negotiations in Dayton.
That it is difficult, thanks to the political situation, is also clear to the citizens, who can only dream of a welfare state. Bh. the reality is corruption, crime, nationalist policies that paralyze the state. Along with global events, disagreements in Bosnia and Herzegovina are even more pronounced.
“At this moment we are faced with numerous geopolitical challenges. I think that wise and strong political leadership is needed more than ever, which will position BIH in these turbulent times in accordance with our state-building interests,” said Denis Zvizdic, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH.
The political leadership propagates the EU path and progress, and everyone interprets state-building interests in their own way. Unresolved issues on the table. The issues of the transfer of jurisdiction, the question of state property and the chief justice-cancer of the wound, continue to lead to deeper rhetoric of division.
“Especially when the question is about the transfer of competences in certain matters. Also, we from the RS insist on shutting down the Office of the VP, the departure of foreign judges,” says Milan Petkovic, representative in the House of Representatives of the PSBiH.
And so for years the ball of responsibility has been passed from one to the other. So is there a solution?
“We have to do it together and regardless of certain statements we hear from Dodik, we have to sit down together and work on it and think how we can get to a better future within the EU, and the full implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement,” explained Christian Schmidt, high representative in BiH.
And the full implementation of the Dayton Agreement, despite the limitations, means leading the country towards EU membership, and under the NATO umbrella. All political options are declarative for membership. There is progress, but the European dream requires more commitment, trust, and reforms. The NATO path is full of disagreements.
“When we come back to ourselves, when we work on trust between our three peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina and those who do not agree, I think that Bosnia and Herzegovina will quickly reach its goal, which is the EU and NATO.”, explained Marina Pendes, a member of Club of the Croatian People in the National Assembly of PSBiH.
“Every day you only have the production of mistrust, fear, and then you see in contact with ordinary people that it is a production with which a huge number of people do not agree at all.”
They do not agree because the majority is for a European BiH, and the politicians are the ones who are stopping them. And they proved it. According to the 2013 census, the number of people under the age of 18 was almost 700,000. Projections for this year are that there are now 560 thousand. And that is the biggest challenge that BiH is facing. And the politicians ignore it, says Nerzuk Curak, professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of UNSA.
