It is obvious that Bosnia is “stuck” in its reforms and European integration and it seems that the European Union does not know what to do with the country anymore as there is a sense that no approach so far has produced significant results, university professor and coordinator in the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group, Florian Bieber, told N1 on Saturday.

Bieber said that there are fewer voices within the European Union currently advocating for expansion and that a lot more attention was paid to Bosnia and Herzegovina a decade ago.

“The European Union believes that not one approach it had toward Bosnia so far brought about essential results and there is a feeling that it doesn’t know what to do with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Right now, there is no new energy within the EU for it to help Bosnia get out of its crisis,” he said.

Bieber also commented on the agreement which enables the city of Mostar to hold its first local election since 2008, saying that “there is a reason for scepticism as those who have been blocking solutions for more than ten years have now supposedly found a solution.”

“They must show this agreement in practice. The problem is that blockades being created at various government levels across all of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.

Bieber said it is too difficult to predict whether Bosnia will amend its election law in accordance with court rulings in the near future but argued that “the main political actors have an interest in not finding a solution and they keep shifting the responsibility onto each other.”

“If there was political will, then solutions would be possible. I don’t see any political will here. It’s nearly impossible to predict this from the outside as the motivations of Bosnia’s politicians are not tied to a rational attempt to solve problems,” he said.