If they become part of the ruling coalition in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serb political parties currently in opposition are ready to immediately support the adoption of reform laws insisted upon by the European Commission, the leaders of these parties confirmed on Monday.

This would create the conditions for opening accession negotiations with the European Union,

The Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) and representatives of the Serb bloc opposing Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik's policies on Saturday confirmed the possibility of forming a new coalition that would also include parties from the Bosniak-civic bloc.

This would remove Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) from power, following the party's adoption of a number of laws challenging the constitutional order of BiH and the implementation of legislation previously passed in the state parliament.

For months, Dodik has been blocking the adoption of laws that the European Commission has set as conditions for recommending that the European Council approve the opening of accession negotiations with BiH, for which preliminary approval was granted in March 2024.

Igor Crnadak, head of the parliamentary group of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska (RS), the Serb entity within BiH, and former foreign minister of BiH, confirmed on Monday that they are ready to support these laws immediately after entering government.

He expects the prompt adoption of laws on the judiciary and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), as well as the appointment of a chief negotiator. Additionally, he emphasised access to the €6 billion in EU funds allocated to support reforms in Western Balkan states, from which BiH has so far received nothing due to its failure to adopt a reform programme.

“A concrete date for the first intergovernmental conference to begin accession talks and the unlocking of €70 million from the Growth Plan (for the Western Balkans) could be among the first tangible effects of the new majority, delivering results visible to ordinary citizens. After that, there will be plenty of work to do on other fundamental issues,” Crnadak told the Dnevni Avaz news portal.

Dodik has so far blocked the adoption of judicial laws and has now introduced an entity-level law attempting to ban the work of the BiH Court, establish a separate HJPC at the RS level, and prevent the functioning of the state-level body.

Crnadak also indicated that the Serb opposition is prepared to take steps to reform the electoral process by introducing ballot scanners, take a firm stance against corruption, and work towards calming the overall situation in society.

BiH is currently facing its worst crisis since the Dayton Agreement, which ended the country's 1992-1995 war, with arrest warrants issued for Dodik, the RS prime minister and the RS parliament speaker, along with detention orders, making their apprehension imminent.

Crnadak commented that the current situation would “somehow be resolved” but made it clear that he holds Dodik and the current RS political leadership responsible for the crisis. The laws they passed in February have only caused problems, and whoever came up with the idea of forcibly banning the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and other BiH state authorities from operating in RS is actually an enemy of the entity, the former BiH foreign minister concluded.