EU membership to provide stability, security for Bosnia and Herzegovina: High representative

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Membership in the European Union will provide an additional guarantee of stability and security for Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens, High Representative Christian Schmidt said Wednesday.

''The citizens of this country have never been this close to integrating into the EU. We have the chance to be even closer to this goal next month. Membership will provide great support to Bosnia and Herzegovina in development and infrastructure projects. It will be an additional guarantee of stability and security for its citizens,'' Schmidt said after a session of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) in the capital Sarajevo.

Bosnia and Herzegovina gained EU candidacy status on Dec. 15, 2022.

According to Schmidt, Bosnia and Herzegovina is at a turning point.

"The international community is concerned that there is currently no significant progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its citizens are ready for the EU, but unfortunately, some politicians give the impression that they have not reached this stage. We must take responsibility for every aspect of the country's development. Thoughtless, offensive rhetoric and false claims must be stopped,'' said Schmidt.

Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb leader known for his controversial statements against the country's constitution as well as fanning sentiments for his region's separation from the federation, reiterated Wednesday that he does not accept the legality of Bosnia's High Representative, who oversees the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the country's bloody civil war in the 1990s.

Bosnian Serbs say they do not recognize Schmidt as Bosnia’s international high representative because he was not endorsed by the UN Security Council.

The post of the international envoy was drawn up in the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended Bosnia’s devastating war to oversee peace in the Balkan country, which was split into two autonomous regions – the Serb Republic and a federation dominated by ethnic Bosniaks and Croats.