The head of the EU Delegation in Bosnia, Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, urged once again on Wednesday leaders to stop setting conditions for the formation of the government following the October 2018 General Election, insisting that there is a lot for the new government to do.
He and other top EU officials have repeated several times that all sides must give up on any kind of conditions, especially when speaking about issues where there is no agreement in sight, he said.
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“At this moment it is important to find a formula and begin working. So much work is waiting to be done,” he told reporters in Mostar as he commented on the Annual National Programme (ANP) being set as a condition for forming the government.
The main reason for a lack of a new Council of Ministers is a disagreement between the three Presidency members over Bosnia’s NATO path.
While the Bosniak and Croat members want the country to move forward on that path, the Serb member is against it. The position of the Council of Ministers Chairman belongs to the Serbs, and their political leadership does not want to send the ANP, which is an obligation the country took up in the past.
This is why the Bosniak and Croat Presidency members refuse to greenlight the new Prime Minsiter.
Wigemark also spoke about the migrant crisis which emerged in the country beginning of 2018, as surrounding countries closed their borders.
“It is necessary to set up a system for how this issue will be resolved. You cannot just find locations to accommodate migrants on the whim,” he said.
Authorities in Bosnia’s northwestern Una-Sana Canton, the most affected area, have recently decided to relocate migrants from the town of Bihac to the reception centre ‘Vucjak’. Wigemark said the EU Delegation was opposed to it, as the centre is located on the border with the EU and would become a magnet for migrants and would cause big problems.
“Other than that, this used to be a landfill and we are concerned that there is a presence of methane and other dangerous materials which could cause fires and problems. The issue of migration is our collective responsibility,” he said.
