European Parliament member Dietmar Koester said that the initiative by international peace envoy Christian Schmidt regarding the election law changes goes against the decisions of the European Parliament and the Bundestag.

Speaking to N1, Koester commented on the media reports that Schmidt, who oversees the peace implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and has special powers to impose laws and dismiss officials, would impose amendments to Bosnia's Election Law and the Constitution of the Federation BiH, Bosniak-Croat shared part of the country.

This would be the third time Schmidt uses the so-called Bonn powers after assuming office in August 2021. First time he did so to annull a law on immovable property in Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity and the second time to secure the financing of the October elections.

The media report sparked reactions among pro-Bosnian political parties and academia, who warned that such changes would mean more discrimination and further divisions among Bosnia's major ethnic groups. Specifically, they warned the law changes would go in favour of the major Croat ethnic party HDZ BiH, one of the key parties in political talks on electoral reform which so far yielded no results.

Dietmar, the SPD representative, believes that Schmidt's move would mean a step backwards and that it was not in line with 14 priorities of the European Union for the country's candidate status.

He stressed that the decision is unacceptable and goes against EU's democratic principles.

The German MEP also finds it unacceptable that representatives of any neighbouring countries try to interfere with this issue that Bosnia and Herzegovina is dealing with.

He noted that the elections scheduled for October 2 must be fair and democratic.

Watch the full interview with Koester in the video.