Croatian MEP Tonino Picula warned on Friday that the European Union had to intervene decisively in Bosnia and Herzegovina as soon as possible in order to prevent the escalation of the crisis in that country.

Picula is one of the eight MEPs that this week sent an open letter to High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the international community’s High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, expressing concern over the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and warning that it could lead to unforeseeable consequences.

In an interview with the Sarajevo-based web portal Faktor, Picula said that it was clear that the person responsible for such a worrying situation was Bosnian Presidency member Milorad Dodik, who was now openly advocating passing a law the goal of which was to de facto separate the Republika Srpska entity from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitutional order.

We call on the international community to intervene since it has influence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the EUFOR and the Office of the High Representative (OHR). Letting the creeping escalation (of the crisis) reach a point where a great evil could really occur is extremely irresponsible, said Picula.

He noted that MEPs of all pro-European political groups in the European Parliament, people responsible for Bosnia and Herzegovina, had written to Borrell and Schmidt. They set aside political differences, which are not negligible, to find a common interest and warn about the state of affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The current state in Bosnia and Herzegovina reminds them all of 1992, and Picula warned that in 1992, in many areas in the country there was disbelief that there could be a conflict, yet the then situation unfolded into the bloodiest conflict on European soil since World War II.