In Politico, former UK Ambassador to Yugoslavia Ivor Roberts criticizes former High Representative Valentin Inzko for his decree criminalizing the expression of certain opinions about BiH’s war, writing that he finds it “hard to agree with” Inzko’s view that “it was worth triggering Bosnia’s biggest conflict since the war in order to get this law passed.”
High Representatives, most notably the late Lord Ashdown, have tried to revise Dayton over the years by creating a stronger center, and over the years, the Bosnian Serbs have resisted on the basis that that is not what they signed up for. Thus, there has been, and is, permanent conflict between the centralizing urges of the High Representative and the Bosnian Serbs’ insistence on decentralization.
Roberts explains how the Western Balkans countries have lost hope of “joining the EU any time soon,” and argues that the EU “can’t bossily impose European norms through an unelected governor, if those European norms don’t lead anywhere.” He concludes by calling for the EU to provide BiH “and other countries in the region with a clear road map that will reward difficult choices with membership.”
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