According to EU Special Representative in Bosnia, Johann Sattler, while the timing of the decision of the High Representative to impose changes to the Election Law in the country might not have been ideal, it was the result of the failure of local politicians in reaching an agreement.
Sattler stressed that rules for holding elections are extremely important for every country, especially for BiH, where people are losing confidence in the system and where the electoral law is contrary to the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. He said the EU has throughout the past year worked closely with the US on trying to get local political actors to agree to a solution, but that this failed because Bosnia’s politicians failed to reach an agreement.
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He said he regrets the fact that the High Representative had to resort to imposing a solution, but that BiH politicians were very familiar with what is needed in order to secure the functioning of the Federation entity.
However, Sattler said that the moment might not have been ideal for the decision to be imposed.
Although some Croatian politicians, including Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, praised Schmidt’s decision as a success of Croatia’s foreign policy, Sattler said there is nothing that would point to Croatia influencing the decision.
The EU official said that once a country becomes an EU member, such as Croatia, it makes certain political decisions exclusively together with the other EU members.
He said the EU wants to see the new government in BiH formed by the end of the year. While he noted that Schmidt's decision might not be 100 percent effective in preventing failure to form a government in FBiH, it will nevertheless have a long-term effect.
Sattler also commented on the decision of the European Commission to recommend EU candidate status for BiH, saying that this represents a signal for the country coming at the right moment.
“It is a beautiful signal that tells the citizens that we stand side by side,” he said, noting that the EU member states will have the final word on the matter at a session in December.
He explained that there are several reasons for the EU Commission making the recommendation.
Firstly, he said it was because of what the country has managed to achieve. Sattler welcomed several reforms, such as the resolution of the election issue in Mostar, the Strategy for working on war crimes cases, progress when it comes to public procurement, etc.
Another reason he stated is the geopolitical situation caused by the aggression against Ukraine.
Lastly, Sattler said that the recommendation represents a task for BiH politicians following the election.
He said that the middle of December will be an extremely important time, calling on all ministers to work intensively, noting that there are two extremely important items on their desks: BiH’s cooperation with EUROPOL and the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest.
However, Sattler stressed that whatever the decision of the European Council on the matter may be in December, BiH still must implement 14 priority reforms the EC set forward in order to secure candidate status.
He also denied statements by the Bosnian Serb member of the tripartite BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik, who suggested that the EC recommendation implies abolishing the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in the country.
According to Sattler, “there is no connection” between the recommendation and Schmidt’s office.
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