The U.K. Ambassador to Bosnia urged the country’s leaders to pick up the pace on EU reforms and find a solution in their dispute over the changes of the election law in order for the October elections results to be timely implemented.
“The situation is always complicated in one way or the other in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Ambassador Edward Ferguson told N1.
“I think now is no different, of course. We have elections looming in October, and we still have an urgent necessity for political parties to agree on how the result will be implemented afterwards,” he warned.
Speaking in N1's morning programme, Ambassador Ferguson said that Bosnia's governments and parliaments are becoming increasingly instabile and that this causes delays in the implemetation of reforms.
“On the other hand, we had some good news in the sense that Bosnia submitted it's answers to the (European Union) Questionnaire, and we did see some important reforms being passed. It's always a bit of a mixed picture, but as ever we would like to see faster progress,” he said.
The Ambassador refused to speculate whether the international community will intervene in regard to the changes of the state election law but emphasized the responsibility of domestic leaders for the functioning of the country's political system.
However, “the US Embassy if facilitating discussions between the political leaders. This will bring this country closer to European standards and allow these elections to take place without stalling and the results to be implemented,” the Ambassador said.
Ferguson and the chief of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Bosnia, Bruce Berton, have called for political leaders in Bosnia's Federation entity to stop blocking progress in all institutions and to get to work, but they don't seem to be listening.
“The Federation Government and Parliament have not had a meeting yet this year. It is always difficult for a foreign ambassador to know exactly what is going on and why things are happening, but if these reports are correct that this is about arguments between people who are in different positions, then I think this is very dissapointing, He said.
The U.K. Government is seeking to invest 10 million Marks to introduce a new system that will allow new businesses to register online much quicker and much more efficiently than the current system allows. This is important for entrepreneurs and investors.
However, the legislation that is required to support that online system has not yet been adopted neither by the Federation Government nor by the Republika Srpska National Assembly.
“This decision should not be political. I think everyone can agree that this country should be better for business,” Ferguson said.
Asked whether it would be any better would the international community use the Bonn powers, Ferguson said that such a move could actually be counterproductive.
“I think we are seeing some results, we are seeing the country moving forward – slower than we would like, but moving forward on its’ path towards the European Union,” he said.
“If the international community steps back into a role which it had 10 years ago, which was much more interventionist, I think this would be a huge blow to this country's European Union aspirations. If the international community is going to be doing everything, then this is not a good signal for the EU and citizens,” he said.
Europe itself has become more complicated lately, particularily after the poisoning of a former spy in Salsbury. Great Britain is leaving the Union and Bosnia is trying to get in.
Ambassador Ferguson said the two countries should not be compaired.
“We are a different country and we have a different history, and our citizens made a different decision. Your leaders have applied to the European Union at a moment when we are leaving, but we fully respect and support your decision,” he said
More than 70 of Bosnia's trade is with the EU so eventhough the UK is leaving, it fully supports the intention of Bosnia and other Western European countries to join.
“We think this is important for you and that this is something that everyone agrees on, that this is the right direction for this country,” he said.
The poisoning of a spy on U.K. territory is a serious development and an attempted murder of two civilians on British soil and what the UK would like to see is for Russia to explain how this military-grade nerve agent, which is produced by Russia and should not even exist, was used on British soil.
“It is the first use of military-grade nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War and it was a grave breach of the Convention on Chemical Weapons,” Ambassador Ferguson explained.
“We need to stand together and ensure that something like this does not happen again. We responded to these developments in a serious way. So far we have received no explanation. It is not just about support and solidarity toward the U.K., this is about our partners recognising that this could happen in any city in the world, and nobody wants this. It is important to uphold the rule of international law,” said Ferguson, who will conclude his mandate in August of this year.
