The newly elected Bosnian Croat member of the tripartite Presidency has invited the Croatian President and Prime Minister to Sarajevo for a meeting to discuss open issues between the countries, as well as the implementation of conclusions of the Council of Europe regarding Bosnia which Croatia voted for.
Zeljko Komsic said he wants to discuss Croatia’s position on two EU documents that urge Bosnia to implement the EU Human Rights court’s ruling in the Sejdic Finci case. The ruling ordered Bosnia to stop violating the rights of its citizens who do not belong to any of the three constituent peoples.
In 2009, a member of the Roma minority, Dervo Sejdic, and former Head of the local Jewish Community, Jakob Finci, sued Bosnia for its discriminatory Constitution barring them from running for Presidency since they are neither Bosniaks, Croats or Serbs. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in their favour, saying Bosnia should fix its constitution so that every person has the right to be elected and to vote for any candidate.
Bosnia has, however, never managed to fix this issue because the ethnic-oriented parties prefer to keep it the way it is: that Serbs living in the Serb-dominated part of the country, Republika Srpska (RS), elect the Serb member of the country’s tripartite presidency and that the other two members are elected by people living in the other half of the country which Bosniaks and Croats share.
However, the main Bosnian Croat party, the Bosnian branch of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) which Plenkovic and Grabar-Kitarovic belong to, has lost the Croat seat in the Bosnian presidency to left-leaning Komsic. The HDZ claims Komsic won thanks to votes from the numerically dominant Bosniaks and is therefore not a legitimate Croat representative.
Croatia has lobbied heavily in Brussels for Croats in Bosnia to be able to elect their own representatives while at the same time it has voted for EU declarations that urge Bosnia to implement the other ruling that allows everybody to vote for everybody.
A visit by Croatia’s Prime Minister and President to Sarajevo should be helpful in determining which one of the two principles Croatia is backing and whether it stands behind its votes on EU resolutions, Komsic said.
“Having in mind that the Republic of Croatia has on two occasions voted for EU conclusions according to which rulings by the European Court of Human Rights must be urgently implemented in Bosnia (…),” it would be “especially useful” to talk about Croatia’s readiness to really support their implementation, Komsic said.
Komsic pointed out that Croatia voted in favour of an EU Council conclusion on October 16, 2017.
“Whilst acknowledging that the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina lists Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs as constituent peoples (along with Others), the Council reiterates that the principles of equality of all citizens and non – Discrimination shall be fully warranted. The Council underlines that no legislative or political steps should be taken which would make the Implementation of the Sejdić – Finci ruling and related rulings more challenging,” conclusion 4 in the 2017 document says.
Komsic said that “it was clear” from the EU documents that Croatia has formally put the focus on implementing the European Human Rights Court rulings, but that “unfortunately this cannot be seen in the political practice of officials of the Republic of Croatia.”
He said he also wants to talk about other outstanding issues.
“I believe we need to talk about the border issue, the return of the property of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the problem of Busko lake (…),” he added.
Bosnia and Croatia have never ratified the definition of their border in the south.
Croatia’s public electric utility company, HEP, has been exploiting the largest man-made lake in Europe, Busko Blato, for years although it is located in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The HEP is using the Busko Blato water to supply its hydroelectric power plant Orlovac – without any inter-state agreement in place.
Also, nearly 200 properties across the Mediterranean coast, including a number of hotels, Bosnia’s ‘Energopetrol’ gas stations and commercial structures belong to companies based in Bosnia. Their status, however, remains unclear as Bosnia and Croatia have not yet agreed on how the treaty on the succession of property after the breakup of former Yugoslavia will be implemented.
RELATED NEWS
