News in English     | 16.07.2021. 14:02 |

Komšić: If the situation stays as it is, I'll be a candidate for the Presidency

FENA Hana Imamović

SARAJEVO, July 16 (FENA) - Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željko Komšić will take over the chairmanship of the Presidency on July 20, and during his eight-month term in office, he says that there will be a lot of work and that regular sessions will need to be convened.

In an interview with FENA, he emphasized that it is necessary to organize sessions of the Presidency of BiH, which will not be extraordinary or telephone ones, important for the functioning of the state, but during the past eight months when Milorad Dodik performed the duty of the chairman, that was not the case.

It seems to Komšić that everything else was more important to Dodik than the job he was elected to perform and where he formally and legally receives his salary, which is why Komšić's first priority will be to maintain a regular rhythm of sessions where important issues will be discussed.

Speaking about the expectations in the coming period, he also mentioned the issue of a new wave of pandemics, which experts are announcing, and although the Presidency is not in charge of health, coordination with the Presidency is often sought in international contacts.

When it comes to foreign policy, Komšić reminds that the United Nations General Assembly will be held soon, and with the arrival of the new High Representative Christian Schmidt, an increase in international contacts is expected.

Komšić says that the trilateral panel between BiH, Serbia and Turkey is functioning but it has been slowed down by the pandemic, but the one with Croatia is at a standstill because of the well-known views of official Zagreb, which refuses to communicate with the BiH Presidency, while Komšić is one of the three members.

For Komšić, such a policy of official Zagreb is meaningless and does not bring anything good to anyone, and he believes that it would be good if such an attitude of would change since there is a need for meetings at the bilateral and multilateral level.

Komšić also referred to the issue of obtaining a candidate status for membership in the European Union, saying that he was not optimistic that it would happen by the end of the year, especially because BiH did not meet some of the key conditions of the European Commission.

He notes that BiH has not stood out by working on the implementation of priorities, especially considering the failure to adopt several pieces of legislation, namely those on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), conflict of interest, public procurement, and when it comes to reforming election legislation, Komšić also does not expect that this work will be completed by the end of the year.

As for BiH's path to NATO, Komšić says that a meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) was held this week, in the NAC+BiH format, at which the first Reform Program was discussed and what has been done to implement it, and BiH is supposed to already start with the drafting of the third document.

The BiH Presidency member believes that in the context of BiH's path to NATO, Croatia will try to stop some things by insisting on inserting the notion of the constituent peoples in various reports and programs, but it remains unknown how NATO will respond to that.

According to Komšić, Croatia has managed to win over several more member states in its intentions, but in the meantime, those countries have given up support.

"Whatever happens next, BiH cannot afford the luxury of giving up NATO and the European Union, because the alternative is chaos not only in BiH but also in the region. Regardless of the current delays and obstructions, I would still stick to those two options - NATO and the EU," said Komšić.

He also referred to the process of changes to the Election Law, which he believes would be a success if these changes would help decriminalize the election process, primarily in terms of preventing election theft, fraud and appeals, but also the introduction of new technologies.

According to Komšić, that would be great progress for BiH and thus restore confidence in the voting process, but also provide a different political image after the next elections, and it is possible that the distribution of political power would be different.

"As for these big political goals, regardless of who announced them, the HDZ or those who are against them, I think there is no majority in BiH for that in the state parliament which could bring an advantage to one side or the other. Neither to satisfy the demands of the HDZ nor the counter-demands, or even those that I represent personally, and that is, above all, the introduction of a civic stat," Komšić added.

He notes that the only thing left is for the interlocutors to exhaust each other in quarrels over different ideas, although he believes that this may be the goal for some because BiH has been functioning on such a matrix for a long time and some profit very well politically off of it.

Komšić announced that he will run for a member of the BiH Presidency in the next general elections, which should be held in October 2022, adding that he will be politically engaged as long as he can contribute to a better BiH, even in terms of stopping divisions.

He says that he will run if things stay as they are and if these topics dominate the political life in BiH, and above all, whether BiH will continue to be ethnically divided or will go towards some reunification and ensuring that we all live as equal citizens. 

If every citizen were to feel every part of BiH as their own, he would probably say that it is time to end his political engagement because that would mean the achievement of the goals of this struggle that has lasted for three decades, and that is for this country to survive, to be better and that all people are equal regardless of their name, background, religion or any other affiliation.

"But, as far as I can see, it will not happen on the basis of all these parameters, so I will continue to fight politically as long as I can and as long as I think there is a reason for that," he said.

He also commented on the views of the leaders of the People and Justice Party and the Alliance for a Better Future, Elmedin Konaković and Fahrudin Radončić, who in some way supported the view that one nation cannot elect representatives to the other, advocated by the HDZ, saying it was nothing new.

He was not surprised by their views, although he believes that this concept completely misses the point because if it is done in that way, then we are still moving towards classifying people into ethnic herds and the only thing we are left with is something called ethnic politics.

"This is something that is nowhere to be found in the Constitution of BiH, because if it were, I would not be able to be in this place. Since the Constitution states that the Federation of BiH is one constituency from which two members of the Presidency are elected from the ranks of Croats and Bosniaks, I sit in the Presidency of BiH," underlines Komšić.

"What the HDZ leader Dragan Čović is advocating is not written in the Constitution. When the Constitution is changed in such a way, then I will respect it," regardless of the fact that he believes it would be wrong.

At the end of the interview, he referred to regional cooperation and one of the initiatives in the region, the so-called "Mini Schengen", saying that the best story for the region is the Berlin Process because it provides answers to everything contained in the Mini Schengen initiative.

"The Berlin Process has the full support of the countries of the European Union, and especially Germany, and within that process, many things can be realized for which we can receive technical and financial assistance within projects that we are eligible to apply for," concluded in an interview with Fena the BiH Presidency member Željko Komšić.

(FENA) S. R.

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