Bosnia Can`t Apply for EU With Envoy On Board

Sweden’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Bosnia would not be able to apply for European Union membership as long as it was supervised by an international peace envoy.

Carl Bildt said the country was not ready to apply during his country’s EU presidency in the second half of this year despite hopes by some officials to bid for a EU candidate status in November or December.

“I don’t think that Bosnia is there yet,” said Bildt, explaining there was little chance for the country’s EU membership bid as long as an international envoy was needed to secure the political stability in the still volatile country.

“You can’t really combine that sort of intrusive international presence with the true European integration process,” said Bildt, who was the first international overseer in Bosnia after the Dayton peace accords ended the 1992-95 war.

He however said that he hoped the international envoy would be soon replaced by an EU envoy.

“I sincerely hope that the time will come when I, in one capacity or the other, will welcome the application of Bosnia to (become) a member of the European Union,” Bildt said. But he added that Bosnia needed to take many reforms before that.

Bildt arrived in Sarajevo along with Czech and French foreign ministers for talks with Bosnia’s ethnic leaders about the slow pace of reforms needed for the country’s progress towards European integration.

The Czech Republic took the EU presidency after France and Bildt said the ministers wanted to show support for Bosnia’s integration efforts at a time when all other countries of the region were ahead in reforms.

“The significant challenges are there for Bosnia. I’m worried about the economic situation,” he said. Political leaders “devote too much time to political issues and too little to the economic and social issues.”

Local leaders needed to take responsibility for further reforms and the European Union would help, he said.

The international community extended in March the mandate of the Office of the international High Representative for Bosnia (OHR) until conditions are fulfilled for its transition to the office of the EU Special Representative.

The OHR was established immediately after the Bosnian war and an international envoy was later given powers to strike down laws and sack officials seen as obstructing the peace accords.

“Dayton is to some extent oriented to the past and Brussels structure (is) more oriented to the future,” Bildt said.