Bosnia and Herzegovina has no better friend than Croatia and what matters to Croatia are the peace, stability and European road of Bosnia, Croatian member of the European Parliament, Zeljana Zovko, told N1, commenting the letter she and her colleagues sent to the European Union (EU) leadership this week.
The reason why they sent the letter, Zovko explained, was to warn that the will of the Croats in Bosnia was betrayed and that their representative was not elected in Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency.
“For two years I have been warning that a serious crisis might emerge. (…) The European Union must engage to prevent the further development of the problem,” she stressed.
MEPs from Croatia addressed the top EU officials on Thursday, expressing their deep concern over the election process in Bosnia, noting that Bosniak voters elected the Croat member to the state tripartite Presidency. They asked for the issue to be discussed at the next Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) session.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina has no better friend than Croatia. What matters to Croatia are the peace, stability and the European road of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Zovko stressed adding that this is Croatia’s obligation since 500,000 Croats in Bosnia has the citizenship and passport of that country.
Bosnia’s state Presidency consists of three members, each representing one of the three country’s constituent ethnic groups. The Bosniak and the Croat members are elected in one of the country’s two semi-automatic entity, the Federation (FBiH), while the Serb member to the Presidency is elected in Republika Srpska (RS).
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The Croatian MEPs claimed the Croat member was recently elected “mostly by Bosniak voters, while the overwhelming majority of the Croats elected another candidate,” which according to them is happening for the third time now.
Speaking for N1, MEP Zovko said the majority of the Croats voted in the October 7 general election for Presidency candidate Dragan Covic and the political parties who nominated him.
Dragan Covic, the presidential candidate and the leader of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH), strongly objected first the nomination and then the election of his main opponent who won the election, social-democrat Zeljko Komsic, saying that he won thanks to the votes of the Bosniaks.
Following the October 7 election, Covic said on several occasion that it would not be possible to form the authorities before the Election Law changes, disabling that one people elect representatives to other peoples, are adopted.
