Bosnia, along with newly-independent Kosovo, is seen as the laggard in the queue of West Balkan EU hopefuls, with Brussels exasperated at its slow pace of reform and constant squabbling between the three ethnic groups.
“The year 2009 will be absolutely critical in determining whether or not Bosnia and Herzegovina stays on the path of European integration, or drops out of the group of Western Balkan countries moving towards the EU,” said Bosnia’s High Representative and Special EU Representative Miroslav Lajcak.
Lajcak delivered his ultimatum in Brussels on Wednesday, in a meeting with EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana and senior Bosnian officials.
“One can only conclude that, now that the Stabilization and Association Agreement (with the EU) has been signed, the political leaders are convinced that they have a blank check from the EU to proceed in the integration process, no matter what their actions are,” Lajcak was quoted in Bosnian media as saying.
“Is this a sign of political maturity and responsibility? Is this the partnership the EU can expect from the institutions and leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina?”
“We need to be clear about this process and it is important that there are no false illusions. The EU does not issue blank checks. Neither when it comes to joining the EU, nor when it comes to visa free access,” he stressed.
In his speech, Lajcak said that all progress was halted in Bosnia after Sarajevo signed the SAA agreement with the EU in June 2008. He listed some of the most troublesome elements of Bosnia’s deepening political crisis, including ineffectiveness of the state government and parliament, as well as lack of coordination among the state and its two entities, Republika Srpska and the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim)-Croat Federation, created at the end of the 1992-95 war.
After more than six months Bosnia’s state government has still not appointed country’s new top negotiator with the EU, and Bosnia has been without its ambassador to the EU for months, Lajcak said.
He also listed some of the key priorities for Bosnia in 2009, including regulation of the state property issue, legalization of the status of the Brcko district, as well as a number of other laws and activities that are required by the SAA agreement.
The normally diplomatic Solana was equally stern, telling media he had informed the Bosnian delegation that Bosnia could not expect to move on with its EU membership bid as long as the Office of the High Representative, OHR, needs to remain in the country to guarantee a minimum of political stability.
The EU hopes that OHR will be able to close down and transform into a new Special EU Representative Office by the end of this year, Solana said, but stressed that this depended on local leaders and their performance and attitudes.
Bosnian leaders, however, appeared unflappable. After the meeting, the Bosnian Serb member of the country’s tripartite presidency, Nebojsa Radmanovic, told journalists that he expected Bosnia to gain EU-candidate country status as well as a place on the White Schengen List in the second half of 2009.
