SETimes.comBiH's Butmir process to continue
22/10/2009
Despite another round of talks, leaders of BiH's main political parties remain well apart regarding elusive constitutional reforms.
(AFP, AP, BBC, FT, AKI, EurActiv, Fena, Beta, B92, Blic, Office of the High Representative - 21/10/09; Reuters, AFP, DPA, AKI, BBC, B92 - 20/10/09; Office of the High Representative - 19/10/09)
The second round of talks on crucial constitutional changes that would pave the way for Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) eventual EU and NATO membership produced no deal, international mediators of the process said on Wednesday (October 21st).
The leaders of the main Bosniak, Serb and Croat parties rejected the proposed package of reforms to improve their country's system of governance and make it a functional state, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said.
But, some progress was made during the two days of talks at Camp Butmir, the EUFOR headquarters on the outskirts of Sarajevo.
"Although some limited progress has been made further discussions will be required... and some of the parties will need to demonstrate greater determination and flexibility," Bildt and Steinberg said in a joint statement Wednesday.
They also urged Bosnian leaders to commit to the needed compromises, if they really want to achieve their stated Euro-Atlantic integration goal.
The joint EU-US initiative was launched earlier this month in a bid to break the long-standing political stalemate in BiH that has blocked the reform process and accession progress. Other international officials participating in the negotiations include EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and High Representative Valentin Inzko, who also serves as the EU's Special Representative (EUSR) in BiH.
BiH signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU last year, making its first major step towards eventual membership in the 27-nation bloc, but constitutional reform is a key precondition for further progress.
"Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot get a free ticket to Europe," Bildt, whose country currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, said Wednesday. "Unless the conditions for joining Euro-Atlantic integration are met, Bosnia and Herzegovina will fall behind the other countries in the region."
The continued existence of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) is another major stumbling block on BiH's accession path. The EU has made the OHR's closure and its transformation into a strengthened EUSR office as a key prerequisite for BiH to gain official recognition as an EU candidate country.
"The European Union is a union of sovereign democracies, not a union of semi-functioning semi-protectorates," Bildt said after the first round of the Butmir talks earlier this month. "It is up to the Bosnian politicians to take their country from a semi-protectorate to sovereign democracy."
The issue of the OHR's possible closure will be discussed at the Peace Implementation Council's meeting on November 18th and 19th. One of the conditions for a decision to that effect is a positive assessment of the political situation in BiH, which has been steadily deteriorating since 2006.