While certain amendments that explicitly referenced the constituent peoples were not included in the recent European Parliament (EP) report on Bosnia, the document still respects the need for their legitimate representation and took into account the country's constitutional design, EP Rapporteur for BiH, Paulo Rangel, told N1.
Putting together the report took some time because it was important to “build a broad consensus not really only in the European Parliament” but also to make it “acceptable and impartial to all the three constituent peoples” in Bosnia, he explained.
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It took time to have a balanced assessment which would represent a positive sign for Bosnia’s path towards the EU, he said, noting that some progress has been made during the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
He exemplified the agreement that led to the southern city of Mostar having its first local election since 2008 as “a step in the good direction.”
Croatian MEP Zeljana Zovko, as well as representatives of the Croat Democratic Union in Bosnia (HDZ BiH), were not satisfied with the report because it did not include certain amendments mentioning constituent peoples and their legitimate representation in BiH institutions.
Rangel said that “the three amendments that expressed an explicit reference to the constituent peoples” were made by him and that “it is true that it was the left that didn’t want to include this.”
“But, in the report, the respect for the legitimate representation of the constituent peoples is totally intact. If you look, there is always a reference to the diversity, to the respect for the Constitution – there are a lot of references, or mentions, where we mention that the anti-constitutional speech or rhetoric should be condemned,” he said.
He argued that the resolution noted that both European Court of Human Rights rulings and rulings by the BiH Constitutional Court should be taken into account in the process of reforming Bosnia’s electoral legislation and the Constitution.
“Here we don’t accept any ethnic or religious or community fundamentalism, or even some rhetoric, we don’t like that. But if we want a solution in order to fulfil the 14 key priorities that are really crucial to grant that we can have candidate status for Bosnia and Herzegovina, of course, we have to take into account the constitutional design of BiH,” he said, referring to the priorities the European Commission defined for Bosnia to fulfil on its EU path.
“The content of the report respects everyone – Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats and all the Bosnian citizens that don’t belong to these communities,” he stressed.
“Everybody is on board because the richness of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the diversity. Without diversity there is no BiH,” he added.
Without such an approach, the result would be the promotion of ideas of a recent non-paper that proposed dividing the county along ethnic lines, he argued, calling this option a “nightmare.”
This would mean “the end of Bosnia,” he said.
See the full interview in the video linked above.
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