Author: Lucie Sýkorová, HlidaciPes.org
Two days before the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, the European Parliament has issued a report on the state and functioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The country was supposed to start accession talks with the European Union last year, but instead it is struggling with a crisis and its disintegration is still not averted. According to the Parliament’s rapporteur for Bosnia, Czech MEP and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee Ondřej Kolář, the country is in the most difficult situation in Europe – right after Ukraine. Russia and China are building up strong influence there.
On 11 July 1995, Serbian soldiers murdered more than eight thousand Bosnian men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. The international court later called it genocide; at the time, it was the largest mass murder in Europe since the end of World War II. The massacre was part of a nearly four-year war in which an estimated 100,000 people died. The conflict officially ended with the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in December 1995.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently divided into three regions – the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, the Federation of Croats and Bosnian Muslims, and the neutral Brčko district in the north of the country. The country has a tripartite presidency, consisting of a Bosniak, Croat, and Serb representative, who take turns as chairman.
“There are still deep trenches between the three nations in Bosnia. It is clear that if they cannot bury them, they will not move anywhere,” Ondřej Kolář, the author of the report and who was in Bosnia and Herzegovina on a monitoring mission in April, told the website HlídacíPes.org. “We have to find a way to help this country achieve full integration into Western structures.” But the solution, he says, is not to pass new resolutions without action.
“The country is divided and I have the feeling that some of the political leadership are comfortable with this system. The EUFOR peacekeeping mission and NATO troops were supposed to be based in the country only temporarily to help the country move ‘from Dayton to Brussels’. However, this is still not working and some politicians are repeating that these institutions need to be strengthened. At the same time, the other part of the political representation is using the presence of these institutions to accuse the EU of turning Bosnia into a protectorate,” Kolář describes.
According to him, the European Union must start dealing with the politicians of Bosnia and Herzegovina without gloves. “We must start telling them firmly what is wrong and that they must stand on their own two feet. We must enforce our rules firmly. Stand by the fact that if they do not implement the necessary reforms, the EU will not send more money. Europe would need to swallow a packet of Viagra to regain its status as a great power.”
According to him, the last resort should be to suspend the accession talks. They have not yet started, despite the European Commission recommending that they start in mid-March 2024, and the European Council subsequently confirming this recommendation. The country has had candidate status since December 2022.
The EU already called on Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement the necessary reforms and meet 14 key priorities set by the Commission. However, the country has still not met the conditions. These include amending the electoral law, which is still discriminatory, constitutional reform and the lack of independence of the judiciary. There is also a need to end violence against women, minorities and vulnerable groups.
In exchange for reforms, Bosnia would have the opportunity to integrate into the European single market and receive up to a billion euros from the EU.
As if the war had ended yesterday
According to Kolář, corruption is still a huge problem in the country. “Money is disappearing like in a black hole. Institutional corruption is at such a level that financial aid from the EU is almost invisible. Last week we commemorated the massacre in Srebrenica. A Bosnian historian here in Strasbourg recalled that there is nothing at all in this village today, not even a bakery, let alone a hotel. The bus station looks as if the war had ended yesterday. Money from European funds does not get to where it is needed. Therefore, local people cannot even see the hope and meaning of why they should want to join the EU,” describes the MEP.
The report, of which he is the main author, calls on the EU and member states to adopt targeted sanctions against all destabilizing actors, especially the representative of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, and others who provide political and material support for separatist politics.
“We must be aware that there is a risk of growing anti-European nationalism in the region and beyond. We call on the EU to remain vigilant and avoid what I call a Georgian scenario for Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
According to Kolář, it is also very important to unify the education system. Currently, students in the Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian parts are learning something different in schools, including in relation to modern history, including the events in Srebrenica.
“We must focus on helping civil society and making Bosnia and Herzegovina a place where young people want to stay and build a better future for the country.”
The influence of Russia, China and Iran
The European Parliament also recalls the recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR, the Venice Commission and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) in the report, which relate to the fight against disinformation and foreign interference and increasing the protection of journalists.
“The European Parliament is concerned about the malign foreign interference and disinformation campaigns by foreign actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in particular Russia and China, as well as their dissemination through local media and political structures, in particular by the RS entity; expresses deep concern about the Kremlin’s support for separatist rhetoric, attempts to delegitimize state institutions and interference in judicial and electoral matters.” The report also mentions the growing malign influence of Iran in the country.
The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, was convicted in March of this year of resisting the High Representative’s orders and separatist activities. Dodik subsequently asked Russia for help, which wants to veto the extension of the EUFOR peacekeeping mission in the UN Security Council.
If this were to happen, the High Representative’s office would end in November this year. In addition to Russia, Dodik is also supported by Serbia and Hungary.
The EUFOR mission supervises the country’s compliance with the aforementioned Dayton Agreement, which ended an almost four-year war in 1995 that claimed a hundred thousand lives. The implementation of the Dayton Agreement in the country is overseen by a so-called High Representative, appointed by the UN. Since 2021, he has been German Christian Schmidt. The High Representative can, among other things, directly recall elected politicians or overturn decisions of individual state bodies.
Despite numerous calls, the authors of the report, including Ondřej Kolář, emphasize that the European Parliament still strongly supports Bosnia and Herzegovina’s path to the EU.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina plays a key role in the European Union’s enlargement strategy and will become part of the European family. I think that only after the outbreak of a full-fledged war in Ukraine in 2022 did many people realize that EU enlargement also makes sense from a security perspective,” notes the Czech MEP.
