prijava
BRUSSELS, March 15 (FENA) - The positive influence of European institutions towards Bosnia and Herzegovina is extremely important, said BiH Presidency member Šefik Džaferović, who addressed today the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament when discussing the challenges BiH is currently facing.
He emphasized that today's debate is taking place at the time of the Russian aggression on Ukraine. Bosnia and Herzegovina condemned this act of aggression and joined the entire civilized world in its condemnation, adding that the situation is being closely monitored because there is awareness of Russian influence in the Western Balkans and BiH, so everything must be done to stop the aggression as soon as possible.
“BiH is at a crossroads. The political crisis has been going on for more than half a year. It was provoked by the moves of the Republika Srpska entity. First by blocking the institutions of BiH, and later by trying to unilaterally take over the competencies of state institutions. The authorities of the Republika Srpska entity, led by the member of the Presidency of BiH Milorad Dodik, are openly threatening the Dayton Peace Agreement and 27 years of its implementation,” Džaferović underlined.
He called it very important that due to the crisis in the functioning of the government in BiH, the threat of collapsing reforms and the threat of open secession that endanger peace - the presence of European military forces in BiH has increased, to guarantee security and stability in BiH.
“It is very dangerous and contrary to all principles of the rule of law to challenge the decisions of international and domestic courts, as well as to challenge the role of the High Representative in BiH. That the Dayton Agreement is a dynamic framework that needs to be improved and brought closer to European standards was confirmed by the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In its judgments, the European Court requested that equal political rights be ensured for members of national minorities, as well as for members of the constituent peoples in the areas where they are in the minority,” Džaferović added.
He also points out that the untruth that the Croat people in Bosnia and Herzegovina are endangered has been pointed out many times in recent years, but the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in BiH that the rights of Jews, Roma, Albanians, Bosniaks, Serbs and one non-ethnic citizen are endangered. No ruling by the European Court of Human Rights has found that any Croat has been discriminated against because of their ethnicity.
He believes that it is necessary to eliminate discrimination from the Constitution and the Election Law on the basis of judgments of the European Court, and to adopt a package of technical amendments proposed by the OSCE and the Venice Commission, in order to make elections more transparent.
At this moment, it is also necessary, says Džaferović, to turn to fulfilling the 14 priorities from the Opinion of the European Commission, and in that sense he welcomed the adoption of the law in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, which means progress on the European path, and joined the calls of the European Commission towards Dodik not to block these laws in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
(FENA) A. B.
