UN High Representative: Bosnia and Herzegovina not ready for EU, but no other option

While Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is not ready for EU accession, the United Nations High Representative for Bosnia, Christian Schmidt, told Euractiv that EU leaders must be aware the country could be at great risk if the accession process is further delayed. 

In March 2024, the European Union leaders agreed to open EU accession talks with BiH eight years after they applied, but issues with the Republika Srpska entity led by Milorad Dodik, known for being close to Russia and prone to secessionist threats, loom large.

“We need to realise that these countries in the Western Balkans need European integrtion, otherwise they will be at great risk in the near future for many reasons,” Schmidt told Euractiv. 

Schmidt, in office since 2021, admitted, however, that Bosnia’s EU accession “is not justified, based on merit and facts.” 

He pointed to threats to Bosnia’s political stability, the danger of growing disillusion with the European Union, and a “dramatic brain drain” that would become unstoppable. 

While the decision to start accession negotiations was welcomed, it was controversial as the country is still under the oversight of the United Nations (UN) after a civil war killed over 100,001 people in the 1990s.

The power of Bosnia’s central government is limited, as the country is split into the largely Bosniak and Croat majority Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serb-majority Republika Srpska, with each ethnic group electing one of three central presidents.

The UN High Representative oversees the peace process, making them the de-facto highest-ranking official in Sarajevo, with to change legislation and dismiss officials unilaterallycials. 

He described a fragmented country where citizens’ loyalty relies predominantly on their ethnic groups, which remain deeply partisan in their interpretation of Bosnia’s violent history. 

“[That] is not compatible with European integration, where non-discrimination is front and centre,” he added. 

“Bosnia-Herzegovina is one of the few, if not the only, country in the world that I know, where civic state is a dirty word for many people [as it] describes demarcation from one’s ethnic identity,” Schmidt told Euractiv. 

Still, the peace envoy considers a faster accession process the only way forward. “If there is no perceptible development, then the European idea will not be very attractive to many people.” 

Even “gradual rapprochement and opening to the EU” would “keep the hope for Europe alive”, he added.  

“If we do nothing and say at some point you will be ready, then an entire generation might have emigrated by the that EU membership is attainable. (…) [The] next five years are crucial.” 

Scepticism on accession talks by end the of year

Yet Schmidt’s ambitious timeline is in peril as Hungary is about to take on the EU Council presidency. Many expect the Eurosceptic government in Budapest to delay accession proceedings. 

Nevertheless, Schmidt said he expects Hungary to call an intergovernmental conference by the end of the year to officially open the accession talks, but he maintains “a certain scepticism,” noting that preparations are moving slowly. 

“The people deserve [accession]. They are Europeans through and through,” Schmidt said. 

Schmidt emphasised that a major problem for Bosnia’s stability and accession is political entrepreneurs who exploit Bosnia’s ethnic divisions to boost their own power, naming no names.

“This has exacerbated on both sides in recent years by the war in Ukraine,” Schmit said, claiming it fueled narratives of solidarity between Serbs and Russians on one side and Croats and Bosniaks with Ukraine on the other. 

“We have realised that [Bosnia’s] checks and balances are not seen as a way to balance interests, but as a tool to blockade: ‘I won’t go along, and then you can’t do anything.’ That’s why there is gridlock (…).” 

Schmit has repeatedly clashed with Milorad Dodik, the president of the Republika Srpska, who pushes separatism and threatened to arrest Schmidt if he entered the autonomous region. 

Interventions are “not in line with the democratic principle.le”

But Schmidt’s interventions with the country’s rules have often been controversial, with the former German agriculture minister bringing little prior experience in diplomacy to the job.

His decision to abruptly change electoral and constitutional laws after the 2022 elections saw him accused of entrenching blockades between the country’s ethnic groups.

The same year, he made headlines with a public tantrum, accusing Bosnia’s politicians of “insults” and playing “political games”.

Schmidt told Euractiv his interventions were necessary to keep the country functional, but he conceded, “We admit that we always get smarter.”

“That doesn’t mean that individual decisions weren’t right. But when there are too many of them, some people start to sit back and say: he’ll do it for us if we can’t do it.” 

“That is not in line with the democratic principle,” Schmidt said.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]