Former High Representatives in BiH Christian Schwarz-Schilling and Valentin Inzko asked the European Commission to admit BiH to the EU "quickly and unbureaucratically," Deutsche Welle reported Wednesday, adding that they demand guarantees from NATO that the alliance will protect the population of BiH. The two also believe that Serbia "should be deprived of the status of a candidate for membership".

“February 24, 2022, is a black day in European history because of the threat that such aggression against a sovereign state could encourage other dictators to take similar steps,” two former high representatives in BiH, Christian Schwarz-Schilling and Valentin Inzko, told the president of the European Commission, reacting to the dramatic development of the situation in Ukraine and the attacks of the Russian army on civilian targets.

Apart from Putin's attacks reminding them of the war in BiH and the artillery terror against the people of Sarajevo, the two diplomats believe that “Dodik and Vucic could use Russia's aggression against Ukraine and provoke incidents or a new war in BiH or Kosovo.”

“Serbia and [the BiH entity of] Republika Srpska have not achieved their goals from the 1990s. In addition, they nurture very close relations with Russia. Therefore, we are afraid that the current aggression against Ukraine could spread to the Western Balkans, primarily to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo,” they said in a joint letter to Ursula von der Leyen.

Given that EU members have called for Ukraine's urgent accession to the EU: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – now, according to former high representatives, is the time for Western Balkan countries aspiring to EU membership, to begin accession negotiations without delay. This must also apply to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it should be a lesson from the events of the last 6 days, says a joint appeal by Inzko and Schwarz-Schilling to the President of the European Commission.

The two former High Representatives in BiH note that NATO and the EU, with their EUFOR troops, have both a mandate and an obligation to BiH. “It derives from the Dayton Peace Agreement and the Berlin Plus Agreement (an agreement on joint military action between NATO and the EU) and requires the preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of BiH, despite the fact that this country is not a member of NATO or the EU.”

Despite this commitment, they call on NATO and Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to provide “strong guarantees to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina that they will not be left stranded, as they were 30 years ago.” He was also asked to “take the necessary steps to prevent threats to the existence of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

“No one knows what Putin's goals are. That is why we ask you to do everything in your power to protect BiH. Its citizens must receive NATO guarantees in case the war spreads to the Western Balkans,” Inzko said.

The high representatives demand sending NATO troops to the Brcko corridor and the BiH border with Serbia, citing Stoltenberg's recent statement: “The Kremlin is trying to put NATO and the EU in a position to provide less support to their partners, and therefore our collective response must be to give even more support to countries such as BiH, Moldova and Georgia, so we could help them succeed in their democratic reforms and the path they have chosen.”

Exclude Serbia from accession talks

Inzko and Schwarz-Schilling went a step further. They believe that Serbia, which refuses to impose sanctions on Russia, should be excluded from its candidacy for EU membership. They refer to the first High Representative in BiH, Karl Bildt, who wrote on Twitter a few days ago that Serbia's attitude towards Russia “disqualifies it from the accession process,” and that “there is no place in the EU for countries that do not share European values.”

Letters to Stoltenberg and Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the joint appeal, were handed over by the High Representatives to the Consulate General of BiH in Frankfurt.