EU must demonstrate 'leadership' in Bosnia
The EU is expected to demonstrate "leadership" in assuring Bosnia and Herzegovina's transition to a viable state that could one day join the 27-member bloc, the international community's high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina said in Brussels on Tuesday (9 September).
"The western Balkans are the only region with a clear EU perspective, and that is what makes it different from our [EU] foreign policy elsewhere. It is the one region … where the EU is expected to demonstrate leadership and strategic reasoning," Miroslav Lajcak, who is also the EU's special representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), told members of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee.
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"This is our backyard. To put it bluntly, Europe cannot expect to be seen as a global player if it's unable to put its own house in order," he added.
Mr Lajcak said the security situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was currently stable, but stressed that the country is still facing numerous political challenges, the solving of which requires the EU to play a role.
One strategic issue, he underlined, is constitutional reform in Bosnia. There is currently no united approach to such reform, not only domestically, but also within the international community.
"The international community and the EU in particular needs to define what it expects from any agreement" on constitutional reform in Bosnia, he said.
High representative for how long?
Mr Lajcak's post as international warden – or High Representative – in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was enshrined in the peace treaty ending the 1992-1995 Bosnia war, the so-called Dayton Agreements.
The Office of the High Representative (OHR) was scheduled to close in June last year, but its life was subsequently extended, as Bosnia was not judged ready to govern itself.
The next meeting of the countries supervising Bosnia since the end of the war in 1995 will take place in November to review progress achieved by Sarajevo towards self-government, but Mr Lajcak said the remaining conditions set out for the OHR to close are unlikely to be fulfilled by then.
However, he underlined that the OHR will close sooner or later. At which point, the EU should then be ready to step in.
"For the EU, the OHR closure will only be the beginning of our new mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. So there is no exit strategy for us," he told MEPs.
"The international community will look to the European Union for leadership … We cannot afford to fail."
Strong support for EU integration
Inter-ethnic divisions have often stalled political and administrative reforms in the country, but support for EU membership is independent from ethnic affiliations, and is as high as 80 percent, Mr Lajcak pointed out.
Bosnia and Herzegovina include the semi-autonomous entity of Republika Srpska, mainly populated by Serbs (88%), together with the Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Last June, Bosnia was the last country from the western Balkan region, except for Kosovo, to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU – a pre-accession deal representing a first step towards eventual EU membership.
Before joining the bloc however, Sarajevo has many issues to solve, in particular corruption and organised crime, but also economic and political insufficiencies.
Meanwhile, the Serbian parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly - 140 to 28 votes - approved Serbia's SAA.
The deal was signed in April, but EU member states have put ratification on hold until Belgrade is judged as co-operating fully with the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague.
The European Commission later welcomed the ratification of the document by Serbian MPs and reiterated its position in favour of member states implementing at least the trade related parts of the SAA following the arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in July.