Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik will continue to thwart reforms necessary for progress towards EU accession and the bloc should find a way to diminish his influence, which largely relies on his ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said social democratic EU lawmaker Tonino Picula.
Picula, a former Croatian foreign minister, is the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the EU’s new enlargement strategy and closely follows the Western Balkans.
“Russia has an interest to politically destabilise Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the whole of the Western Balkans and push it away from the EU. That is its primary political interest. Dodik counts on this kind of sponsorship,” Picula told the Bosnian daily Dnevni Avaz.
“It’s not enough to sanction only Vladimir Putin, but to equally sanction his apprentices outside Russia.”
Dodik, Picula explained, will continue to block reforms and signal readiness for BiH to move closer to the EU, all the while making sure it stands still.
The country became an EU candidate in December. On 9 January, Dodik oversaw a controversial parade celebrating the “Statehood Day” in Republika Srpska, Bosnia’s autonomous Serb half, despite a ban by the country’s Constitutional Court.
Dodik also awarded Russian President Vladimir Putin with the highest medal of honour for his “patriotic concern and love” for the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia.
“It was one thing to celebrate 9 January while Bosnia was away from EU membership. It is a completely different thing to do it a month after the European Council granted the country candidate status,” Picula said.
Dodik, who has been under US sanctions for undermining peace and stability in BiH, became the new president of Republika Srpska, in October.
He had previously been the Serb member of the country’s three-man presidency. In the last decade, he has repeatedly vowed to take Republika Srpska out of BiH and called for a peaceful break-up of the country.
(Zoran Radosavljević | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
