Sarajevo it is the so-called pearl of the Balkans. Many have heard about it Jerusalem European already in school education. A city rich in culture, history and events. The city in which the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was murdered, an event that caused this First World War. The city experienced the longest siege in modern times from 1992 to 1995, during the war in which the city also took place genocide From Srebrenica Further east. The city of extreme suffering, but also the extraordinary Resilience as evidenced by the concerts and cultural activities offered during the siege.
Today Sarajevo is breathing again, but it risks being suffocated again by politics that still lies in the hands of those who use it personal advantage.
Several events in recent months have reinforced the feeling constant crisis. Unfortunately, international actors also play a role in this strengthening. The High Representative of the International Community, Christian Schmidt, change that Right to vote on election day; Some European Union representatives meet with the nationalist Milorad Dodik who openly supports the secession of the part of the country where Serbs are in the majority; the continued denial of the Srebrenica genocide in Republika Srpska (by whom?).
The attacks on journalists, the lack of transparency. And we could keep going. To the question: What doesn’t work in Bosnia and Herzegovina? It would be very difficult and time consuming to attempt to answer this.
And yet Bosnia and Herzegovina is an incredibly beautiful country full of potential. It has many aspects in common with Ukraine; If anyone can understand what the war-torn country is going through, it is Bosnia. Not just because it suffered war and genocide; but also for the way in which the European Union BORNIn short, international actors often move without sufficient knowledge about the region, making hasty political decisions and thus neglecting the consequences for the local population.
Compared to other Balkan countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina lags behind extension. It only received candidate status in December 2022, and only thanks to Ukraine (which questioned the enlargement policy that had been stagnating for years). It must meet 14 key priorities that have been formulated as necessary conditions by the European Commission, before we can officially begin accession negotiations with the European Union. And it will take a long time, considering that local politicians (especially in Republika Srpska) have no interest in moving the country forward. But beyond the politicians there is the problem of the complex political system: a state divided into two entitiesA system with many levels of government cannot simply be an effective or functioning system, especially if there is a lack of willingness to cooperate.
However, some positive developments have also been observed recently. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg also recognized this in its ruling Slaven Kovačević against Bosnia-Herzegovina, that the elections in the country are not democratic because the three major groups (Bosgnaks, Croats and Serbs) enjoy a constitutionally privileged position, which in some cases makes representation according to political preferences impossible. Furthermore, this position tends to deepen ethnic divisions within society. According to the court, both the delegates of the People’s House of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the members of the tripartite Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina must be elected on the territory of the entire country and not for areas defined by the units. Since these two political bodies are responsible for the entire state, they must be elected in a single electoral unit.
What significance and implications could the Strasbourg Court rulings on elections (Kovacevic v. Bosnia-Herzegovina) have? The most important is certainly the one that recognizes that every citizen is free to vote for the candidate he wants, regardless of his ethnicity. So, for a country divided into two (tripartite if ethnic groups are taken into account, but there is no institutional correspondence between groups and territory) and with nationalist politicians, this is a sentence that overthrows the current system. In this way, once again underlining the unsustainability of the current constitutional structure is certainly good news, especially for citizens’ freedom of choice: the real challenge will be its implementation, considering that there are already many judgments that have not been implemented , because there is a lack of political will to participate in constitutional reform.
The politician who is most opposed to reform is Milorad Dodik, Serbian nationalist, friend of Putin as well as the Serbian President Vucic. Anyone who knows a little about the history of the Balkans knows what role the Bosnian Serbs played in the war of the 1990s (although they were not the only ones guilty of war crimes and ethnic cleansing). Dodik is the apt example of the current system in which a politician uses this nationalist propaganda, can block any attempt to improve the land to defend its fiefdom. His threats to secede are omnipresent; and its continued denial of the Srebrenica genocide and the resulting insult to the victims and families of the genocide continue. Not even the sanctions that the USA imposed on him had any effect: perhaps it is because the European Union did not join them? It is not easy for the European Union to take a coherent position, especially since Hungary, as a member state, supports the Republika Srpska and its President Dodik.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a divided state: There is a need to rediscover unity – but it must not be imposed from outside, it must be found within the country, otherwise it will not be sustainable. And it is difficult to do this when a large proportion of young people are leaving Bosnia forever, leaving the country’s future in the hands of those whose primary goal is maintaining the status quo.
As suggested in the recent judgment cited, citizens must be able to decide according to their political preferences and not solely on the basis of ethnicity. Therefore, the privileged position of the ethnic-nationalist parties must be broken.
The European Union must support this more decisively Bosnia Herzegovina in this transformation process, which has just gained new momentum after a significant stalemate over the last 15 years. It must be clear to everyone that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s accession to the EU will only be possible as a united and integral country based on the values and principles of the Union itself.
Born in Trento, graduated in political science from the University of Innsbruck, I have two master’s degrees in European studies (Free University of Berlin and College of Europe Natolin) with a specialization in European history and a thesis on war crimes and coming to terms with the past in Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina . My passion is the Balkans and especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, where I lived for six months and also learned Bosnian.
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Federica Woelk