Bosnia and Herzegovina's High Representative discusses political situation

121
3
Bosnia and Herzegovina's High Representative discusses political situation

Christian Schmidt, High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina BiH, was heard yesterday in the Palace of Westminster in front of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United Kingdomom UK, where he spoke about the political situation in BiH.

The meeting of the Committee was opened by Chairman Alicia Kearns, who asked the high representative to briefly describe the current situation in BiH.

I am glad things are moving. There is a dynamic that we did not have last year because we had a blockade from the Republika Srpska RS especially Milorad Dodik, who was a member of the BiH Presidency. They returned to the institutions. Elections were held. I am not sure if the Central Election Commission could detect all problems. A new Council of Ministers was formed last week and coalitions are being formed. It consists of the Eight, HDZ and SNSD, said Schmidt.

He stated that the current formation of the government in FBiH is the biggest problem.

It is difficult to form a government at the Federation of BiH FBiH level, but the budget was recently adopted. As for the European Union EU status, I don't think this is an issue for discussion in the UK, but I must say that BiH was granted candidate status in December. This is not the beginning of negotiations and there is still much to do before that. The high representative said that they hope that this will bring some change to the commitment towards European integration.

During the conversation with the members of the Committee, Schmidt once again stated that he had unblocked the processes in the FBiH, but that it was not up to him to form the government.

It is not up to me to form the government. The situation is where the Eight have a majority in the House of Representatives and in the House of Peoples of the FBiH, SDA manages the Bosniak Caucus with certain coalition partners, Schmidt points out.

During the hearing, Schmidt referred to the adoption of Bonn powers directly against political individuals in BiH.

I would like to be like Paddy Ashdown. He did it in a different environment. It included a strong presence of the Stabilisation Force in BiH SFOR and international police structures. I wouldn't rule it out, but I haven't done it yet. We have to think about the financial and economic conditions of the sanctions. RS is not the richest part of the country and needs money, said the high representative.

In the end, Schmidt spoke about state property and said he had no agreement with Dodik about it.

All those stories about me reaching a secret agreement with Dodik are nonsense. I have to make decisions about state property. I blocked earlier decisions of the National Assembly of RS NARS related to it. Dodik is playing a game in which he points out that state property is a matter of existence of the RS. Klix.ba said that was nonsense.