How do tragedies turn into farces, or perhaps it’s more appropriate to characterize them as hilarious tragedies – Bosnia and Herzegovina’s European path seems to be a perfect example.
After the publication of the long-awaited European Commission report, that’s exactly what happened. Instead of discussing the report’s substantive findings, a heated debate erupted over whether the EC said “recommends” or “will recommend” opening negotiations with BiH when conditions are met. Of course, there is no substantial difference in these formulations. But this did nothing to diminish the fervor of debate between two camps that could be conditionally called “progress defenders” and “progress deniers“.
And of course, the EC itself contributed mightily to this confusion by using first one formulation and then another, triggering waves of witty and cynical remarks across social media.
We must not forget the third subgroup, the so-called justice seekers, who find traces of conspiracy against our suffering, beautiful, proud homeland in everything, naturally from the EU, using the decision to start negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova as their key argument.
However, the essence of the whole story is that BiH didn’t receive candidate status due to achieved progress or meeting conditions, but rather as a result of geopolitical considerations.
Whatever the case and whichever side or school of thought you favor, the EC is at least explicit about one thing: out of 14 priorities from the opinion back in 2019, BiH has implemented 2. So that’s 2 in 4 years – if we continue at this pace, do the math yourself…
The “progress defenders” beat their heroic chests claiming progress is tangible and visible, that a few hastily cobbled-together laws represent an epochal step forward.
No decent person could say that the way these laws were passed and the solutions they contain are something to boast about. On the contrary. For instance, the amendments to the HJPC Law were changed at the last minute in complete secrecy, deviating from solutions proposed by the Venice Commission and containing provisions that fail to achieve the purpose of adoption, which the HJPC itself calls unacceptable and inapplicable.
Or the new Freedom of Information Act, which contains solutions worse than those in the previous law, and could comfortably be called the Prevention of Freedom of Information Act, was forcibly passed, brutally ignoring over 200 submitted comments from civil society organizations and media, as well as international actors, primarily SIGMA and the EU.
Well, if this is progress, what does regression look like?
The report contains more interesting points, such as the observation that the High Representative’s interventions have caused and endangered legal security according to OSCE/ODIHR’s opinion. Thus, the Commission notes OSCE/ODIHR’s position without expressing its own assessment of whether it agrees or not or neither.
Of course, much more could be written about how we’re moving away from meeting conditions, starting with the insane laws being passed in the tragicomic despotic Republika Srpska under the leadership of an increasingly irrational president, through the fact that there’s still no program for BiH’s integration into the EU, to the nebulous and completely inapplicable coordination mechanism, but let’s not disturb the positive atmosphere of the theoretical-semantic debate about whether the EC will recommend or recommends opening negotiations once…
We are left waiting until March next year when the European Commission will speak again.
