Croatian MEP: Bosnia must open EU negotiations in March or might never get another chance

If Bosnia and Herzegovina does not open accession negotiations in March, not only will it lose the whole of 2024 on the way to the EU, but it may also never get the chance to negotiate membership again, Croatian MEP Željana Zovko warned in an interview with Euractiv.

According to Zovko, Bosnia should urgently launch a diplomatic offensive, in which she singled out The Hague, as well as Berlin, Paris, and Rome.

“If Bosnia does not take advantage of the present moment, then it is very likely that it will not have the next opportunity, at least not in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, once you open negotiations, it’s already a finished story because you can’t go back to candidate status. So this is a key moment. If someone in Bosnia does not understand that, then they have strayed into politics,” she said.

Zovko, Bosnia’s former ambassador to Spain, France, and Italy, and now an MEP from HDZ and EPP, said that the political climate in Europe is changing and that parties opposing further enlargements are coming to power in member states.

“It is important for Bosnia to finally launch a diplomatic offensive and act together, not in a divided manner. After this visit of the ‘EU trio’, it would be important for the diplomatic representatives of Bosnia to head towards the centres where decisions are made – Berlin, Paris, Rome, and others. In these occasions, Bosnia should seek the opening of negotiations in March. In the same way, we need to start changing the climate that reigns around Bosnia in Europe and show that it is a country that can make decisions independently. For that, however, it is necessary that the politicians in Bosnia work in favour of joining the EU, and not against it”, said Zovko.

She also noted that it is surprising that politicians from the ranks of the ethnic Bosniaks have not lobbied in the Netherlands so far, especially considering Srebrenica genocide in 1995 and the position of the Netherlands towards that.

“In the Netherlands and Europe, there is still a belief that Bosnia is a country in crisis. In such a situation, the only thing that can help Bosnia is that both the government and the opposition are on the same track, that is, for joining the EU”, said Zovko.

She also warned that the international community should not intervene in Bosnia when representatives of all three constituent peoples – Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs – agree on changes to the law.

Zovko does not agree with the assessment that the Constitution of Bosnia, which was drawn up in Dayton in 1995, should be changed before amending the Election Law, and warns that such a thing implies a long and slow procedure.

This week, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and Croatian Prime Minister Plenković visited Bosnia to encourage Sarajevo on its way to the EU.

However, they warned that there are no shortcuts on the EU path and that Bosnia must first fulfil what the EU asks of it, and now it is asking to change four key laws, one of which is the Election law. Plenković and Rutte also warned that if the accession negotiations with Sarajevo do not start in March at the latest, they will not even start this year because the EU is awaiting elections for the European Parliament and the formation of a new European Commission.

Bosnia became an EU candidate at the end of 2022. Although Sarajevo hoped to open accession negotiations by the end of 2023, this did not happen.

Negotiations have been opened with Ukraine and Moldova, while BiH has been put “on hold” until March.

(Adriano Milovan | Euractiv.hr)