German Bundestag adopted a resolution on Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday, expressing support to “Bosnia and Herzegovina on the path to better future.”

The German MPs reaffirmed the support to the international community's High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt and expressed criticism towards Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Milorad Dodik, throughout the discussion on the deployment of German soldiers to the EU peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, EUFOR Althea.

Representatives of the AFD party were not in favour of sending the German troops and told the Greens, who advocate the idea, they do not open the issues in a critical manner.

“If we are sending the German troops, it means that there must be a UN mandate, as was not the case in 1999 in Kosovo, it must be in Germany's interest, and not as was the case in Mali. And for that, there must be a strategy for intervention, and not like it was the case in Mali, Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan,” said an AFD MP, who suggested a refrained position, which was Germany's reasoning for many years due to the realpolitik reasons.

“Of course, stability in the Balkans is in Germany's interest. I will give a few examples such as refugees, criminality, but nothing will change with the re-engagement of Bundeswher in BiH”, said the AFD MP.

Liberal Tomas Aker spoke about the relations in the region, calling the Bosnia Serb Presidency member a “separatist.”

He noted that “when (Serbian President Aleksandar) Vucic speaks about taking his country to EU, we must take into account that cooperation with Dodik and the separatists is not the way to the EU.”

“It is crucial here that the EU takes a unified approach against separatist forces,” said Aker.

On several occasions during the debate, the Bundestag members underlined the importance of BiH's European path and supported High Representative Christian Schmidt.

“Since 1995 we have had eight free elections at the state level, it is very important to preserve that factor of democracy in BiH, that is why we support Christian Schmidt in BiH with all our might, considering the upcoming reform of the Dayton Agreement, in my opinion it will have to be about how the three nations will arrange equality and protect the rights of minorities”, said Knut Abraham from the CDU/CSU caucus during the discussion.

MP Adis Ahmetovic said that the return to the EU Althea mission is an important step to ensure the young democracy that exists in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“We want to return to the Althea mission, we want to prevent the third entity from forming. We want to ensure the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The concept of constituent peoples has failed. We must have one voice for everyone in BiH. Equality must apply to everyone. We must support Bosnia and Herzegovina on its way to the EU,” he stressed.