The international community's High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt on Monday expressed hope that agreement on the new electoral law could soon be reached in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Since I am not a negotiator, I am referring to some of those who are negotiating, who are moderate optimists and we have to do everything to make that optimism realistic, Schmidt told reporters after a meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs. At the closed-door meeting, Schmidt informed members of that committee about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before that, MEPs were addressed by the EU Special Representative in BiH Johann Sattler.

He said that the meeting with members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs discussed the impact of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the dangers of that crisis spilling over into Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkans.

In the coming days, the negotiations on the changes to the electoral law, which have been conducted for months with the mediation of the EU the US but which have not yielded concrete results, should continue.

Schmidt said he hoped that Borrell would encourage all those working on the electoral law to come to an agreement as that was extremely important.

Croatian MEP Tonino Picula said that in the closed-door discussion, it could be heard that relations in the Federation entity, that is relations between Bosniaks and Croats, were crucial for the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

If an agreement on the new electoral law is reached and that law is implemented, we will be able to say that Bosnia and Herzegovina has resolved one of the issues that really shake the very foundations of the state because elections only make sense if everyone taking part in them feels that their vote matters, that they are really choosing their representatives and that those representatives are working for the benefit of that country, Picula said.

He said that the Serb member of the presidency, Milorad Dodik, who had announced a takeover of powers from the state level to the Republika Srpska entity, had recently softened his rhetoric, but that not everyone was convinced that he had changed his opinion.

On Tuesday, members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs will be addressed by Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi.