BiH party leaders met today in Brussels for a continuation of talks under the High Level Dialogue on Accession. The main goal of the meeting was to agree upon a strategy for implementing the Sejdic-Finci decision. Despite several rounds of meetings leading up to today’s summit, Croat and Bosniak leaders from the Federation remained at an impasse.
At a meeting in Brussels on October 1, the leaders of the seven parties agreed the principles for the enforcement of the ruling in the Sejdic-Finci case which would prevent one constituent people from electing the member of the three-man state presidency from another constituent people.
The leaders agreed then that by today they would agree the election models that would satisfy the legitimate interests of the constituent peoples and others, respecting international standards. However, despite intensive attempts, representatives of the Bosniak and Croat political parties could not reach a concrete proposal conforming with those principles.
SDP president and Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija said it was bad that no agreement was reached today but that it was good that the European Commission “is taking on the leader’s role.”
Serb party leaders have already agreed on changes to the election procedures in Republika Srpska, and have stated that they will accept any solution Federation parties can agree upon for that entity.
Pending a final agreement, the EU has decided to cut a financial assistance package to BiH by 54%, and to suspend the next round of assistance entirely, until the issue is resolved.
