Bosnia still not having a new government since the October 2018 election is a “handicap” which puts the breaks on many of the country’s processes, EU Special Representative, Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, told N1 on Thursday.
Bosnia does not have a government mostly because its newly elected leaders keep arguing whether the country should be joining NATO or not.
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“The handicap is that the Council of Ministers and the government at the FBiH (Federation, one of Bosnia’s two semi-autonomous regions) level are not formed, so it is difficult to pass decisions. Only technical decisions can be made,” he said.
He argued that the longer this goes on, the longer Bosnia will need to take the necessary steps forward.
It is up to Bosnia’s political leaders to find a consensus, he said.
“My suggestion is to focus on what they agree on, which, at least, is the EU integration process,” he pointed out.
The envoy spoke about a project called ‘Take the EU initiative,’ which he had just concluded and which included him visiting ten towns across the country and meeting with more than a thousand people to hear their stance on EU integration.
He said he concluded that citizens want democracy and democratic processes.
Wigemark said Bosnia’s politicians “should talk to the citizens about what the country will do, how it should make the inevitable decisions.”
“Older people approached me and my colleagues and said we are those who need to take up the initiative. Then the younger people said they should do it,” Wigemark said.
“We criticize, but we do not call out anyone. Those are the general attitudes that we express. It is not enough for me to point my finger and say, ‘this is your fault, this is not right.’ The citizens of this country did not elect me, the European Commission gave me my mandate,” he said.
Wigemark said that the entire infrastructure in Bosnia needs to be improved, especially regarding transit, since the roads are bad and that takes its toll on the economy.
He also spoke about excise taxes, which Bosnia’s authorities raised last year, saying that citizens have the right to demand transparent disclosure of the data on how much was gathered from institutions.
“About 30 million Bosnian Marks are being collected, they are kept in a special sub-account as stipulated by law,” he revealed, adding that the EU is monitoring how that money is being spent.
Wigemark also commented on the state of Bosnia’s judiciary, saying that it needs to be strengthened, as well as the rule of law.
Bosnia’s top judicial institution, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), should be independent, he said.
But he also explained that it is “a problem to find an institution deprived of any political influence,” as “politics have entered the entire system.”
The first thing Bosnia needs to do is to finally form a government, he said.
He also mentioned that his successor, Austria’s Ambassador in Tirana, Johann Sattler, will soon come to Bosnia and that he is sorry he is leaving.
“I want to stay and follow this story to the end, as I think it will have a happy ending. Patience will be needed,” Wigemark concluded.
