The recently published European Commission report for BiH for 2024, quite expectedly, brought nothing new. When we clear away the bureaucratic-technical terms and phrases, behind the limited progress, initial and early stages, and variations of such gradations, there actually lies one big – NOTHING!
Well, for heaven’s sake with all these clusters and negotiating positions, a diligent follower of the Kafkaesque accession process or, God forbid, a fervent supporter of the Trojka might exclaim, didn’t Ursula herself just a few months ago assert that BiH had made incredible progress, more than in the last ten years. Yes, there’s no doubt she did, but it’s that good old story where progress is in the eye of the beholder.
But alright, let’s not make unfounded claims that there’s no progress, let’s look at the report, what’s the harm.
Oh, right from the comparison with others, it’s not good. BiH has achieved the lowest level of progress or preparedness on the path to integration among all countries aspiring to EU membership, including non-candidates – Kosovo and Georgia.
Right at the start, it’s noted that the elections were negatively impacted by discriminatory elements in the Constitution and lack of electoral process integrity. Not a word about Schmidt’s interventions in the Election Law! Regarding the judiciary, not only is there no progress noted, but a deterioration requiring urgent action. For corruption, it’s no better, stating that even when cases are prosecuted, it’s done selectively and non-transparently – enough said, even without reading between the lines.
All in all, in 20 chapters there was no progress noted, in 9 limited progress, only in 3 some progress, and in 1 good progress. Additionally, let’s remember that BiH is the only country in the Western Balkans region that failed to agree on and send the Growth Plan Reform Agenda to the European Commission, thus depriving itself, at least for now, of its share of the 2 billion grant funds, plus 4 credit lines.
Well then (yes, the name of a famous Bosnian-Herzegovinian band, but in this case also a conjunctive and disjunctive connector), it’s become boring to keep spinning, reading, and commenting on the same story over and over.
But still, it seems that neither we, nor the Brussels technocrats and bureaucrats, and possibly anyone else in EU member state capitals dealing with EU integration issues, can learn one important lesson: reforms are not just technical but par excellence political processes.
Which actually means that you can adopt whatever laws you want, but if you don’t have a genuine intention to implement them, they won’t be worth a hill of beans. Just look at, as His Excellency the US Ambassador aptly noted the other day, the biggest dragon BiH faces – corruption.
So, when you look at the legal framework, there’s theoretically no chance for corruption to occur or if it does, to remain undetected. The public sector has implemented internal controls, risk assessments, integrity plans, internal audits, external audits, ethical codes, whistleblower protection, and who knows what else through the legal framework. And what do we have as a result – BiH is the most corrupt country in Europe after Russia and Ukraine.
So what’s it all about then? Actually, it’s very simple – to even get to the stage of dealing with reforms at a technical level, writing laws, transposing legislation, strategic planning and impact assessments, and all the other bits and pieces, it’s necessary to ensure the political aspect of reforms, namely to establish a minimum of political accountability.
Again, a righteous questioner might cry out: For heaven’s sake, what political accountability when we don’t even establish criminal or disciplinary responsibility, who cares about political accountability?!
There’s nothing to add except to agree with such a statement. But without political accountability, we won’t move far, and without it, neither criminal nor disciplinary accountability will begin to be established. What makes things even more complicated is the fact that political accountability won’t appear on its own, unprovoked.
It has been empirically proven that it only emerges when and if there is articulated demand for it. And that demand must be so strong that it cannot be ignored. Until then, keep reading the reports!
