The Belgian model of government could be used to successfully break the deadlock over the implementation of rulings by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), ensure equal status for the Croats in Bosnia and help mend relations with the Bosniaks, the chairman of the Croatian Parliament Foreign Policy Committee, Miro Kovac (HDZ), told Bosnian media.
Kovac said in an interview with Oslobodjenje daily that he was surprised by criticisms of his proposal, suggesting that Bosnia could use the Belgian model of government, adding that it would help reconcile advocators of ethnic rights and advocators of civic rights.
“I know Belgium as a country, which has further convinced me that elements of the Belgian government structure can be applied to Bosnia and Herzegovina and thus reconcile the principles of respecting the rights of the peoples and the rights of the citizens,” Kovac said.
Belgium has three regions, three linguistic groups and two federal units, which is similar to Bosnia and Herzegovina which has two entities and three constituent peoples.
“By applying the Belgian model it would be possible, without major constitutional changes, to resolve the issue of equality for Croats in the electoral process in Bosnia and Herzegovina and thus implement the Constitutional Court ruling and the ECHR ruling in the Sejdic-Finci case,” Kovac said.
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He stressed that a unitary model for Bosnia as a multi-ethnic state was unacceptable because it would only cause new crises.
“History teaches us that unitary models do not function in multi-ethnic communities. Remember the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, or the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, it was permanently unstable and collapsed like a house of cards,” Kovac said.
He is confident that the resolution of the issue of inequality of Croats would lead to an improvement in relations between the Croats and Bosniaks and in relations with Croatia.
