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11 10 2007 Leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina must adopt police reforms by
October 15, or risk halting their country’s integration into the EU.
By Matthew Rycroft in Sarajevo
At the time of writing, Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing a moment of truth.
Will
political leaders, at last, do what they said they would do two years
ago and reach an agreement that meets the EU’s famous three principles
on police reform? Or will they not? That choice needs to be made now –
by October 15, when EU foreign ministers are due to issue a statement
on Bosnia. There can be no more delay.
If they do,
Bosnia will be on one path – positive, forward-looking, leading quickly
to initialling the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, SAA, with
Brussels, thereby paving the way for closer relations with the EU.
After that it would move towards signing the SAA, becoming a candidate
for EU membership, and eventually joining the EU.
However,
if Bosnia’s politicians fail to agree, their country will be on a
different track – stuck in the past, overtaken on the journey to Europe
by all its neighbours.
That is the stark choice
that has to be made, and a positive decision needs to be based on the
EU’s three principles which stipulate that police legislation and the
budget are determined at the Bosnian state level; the police are free
of political interference; and police districts are established in line
with professional criteria rather than on the basis of the inter-entity
boundaries.
The international community is not
neutral in this choice. Of course we want Bosnia to choose the path of
integration, of joining the EU and NATO. That is because we know that
membership of those organisations is good for the citizens of any
country, and will be particularly beneficial for a state, like Bosnia,
that is emerging from conflict. But we cannot possibly want this to
happen more than the citizens of Bosnia must want it. We can help those
in authority but we cannot make that choice for them.
Our
future approach in this country will depend on the choice made. If the
positive path is chosen, our engagement can change too. We can focus
less on the backward-looking Bonn Powers and High Representative
functions, and more on the forward-looking relationship with the EU.
The citizens of Bosnia will be able to receive all the benefits that
come from a closer relationship with the EU.
Just
look at how much more Croatia receives from the EU than Bosnia does:
two and a half times as much now, rising to 15 times as much when
Croatia joins the EU. The closer to actually joining the EU a country
comes, the greater the prospects of significant funding from the EU.
Looking
at the countries that joined the EU in 2004, their annual growth is up,
their employment is up, and their levels of foreign direct investment
are dramatically up.
The figures are compelling,
but money is only part of it. There are all sorts of other benefits
Croatia enjoys, compared with Bosnia. It has many more twinning and
technical assistance projects, a better functioning judicial system,
less corruption, safer food, improved education, more effective public
services, and so on.
And of course then there is
the question of visas. Croatia will want to join Schengen as soon as it
can after joining the EU. Without similar progress, Bosnian citizens
will find themselves living very close to the external Schengen border
but unable to travel freely across it.
So the
benefits of accelerating as fast as possible along the EU track are
compelling. But if leaders fail to reach a satisfactory agreement on
police reform, then we will have to consider other options, including a
return to the approach of more muscular intervention that we had hoped
to leave behind.
Over recent months and years, we
have increasingly given space to Bosnian leaders to lead their country.
I still believe that was the right approach, for all of us. But if that
approach leads to stagnation and worse, we must change it. That is why
this week is a moment of truth.
Matthew Rycroft is British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.
At the beginning of 2010 BIRN network published Digging Deeper - A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans, written in cooperation with Sheila Coronel, Director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and professor of professional practice at Columbia University, New York.
Komentari:
Ask the question "why"
Poslao: 2007-10-12 10:58:04,
Mr Rycroft, Who, specifically, are the "political leaders" unwilling to find agreement? An ICG report does not hesitate to identify the main Bosnian Serb political party and the Belgrade government as the obstacles. Why is my own government, the British government, washing its hands of the affair by placing general blame and not acting, as it did not act during the war? I am deeply ashamed. Your comparisons with Croatia are meaningless. Croatia is thriving because it did not live the same war and does not have the same complex mix of communities. Bosnia is the legacy of a peace deal that consolidated and rewarded Serbian aggression. How can such a state succeed? When will we (Britain) recognise our mistakes of the past and act rather than posturing and lecturing?
The EU is wrong about Bosnia
Poslao: 2007-10-16 14:50:42,
The EU has reasons to ask that Bosnia adapt certain rules for entry in EU: for example that the customs are handled by the central government. But the EU has no job at all saying how Bosnia should organise its police forces. The official argument ("fighting corruption") is just ridiculous as there are other ways to achieve fighting corruption and as bringing the less corrupt Serb police under control of the more corrupt Muslim police may actually increase corruption. Under the veil of "improving Dayton" the EU is actually undermining the treaty that is the foundation of Bosnia. Anyone believing that supporting a racist like Silajdzic will make Bosnia a more multi-ethnic society makes a big mistake. As for Croatia, it is thriving because the EU rewards it for cleansing nearly half a million Serbs while it punishes Bosnia for having reached a solution where there is at least a place for all groups.
bye bye
Poslao: 2007-10-16 20:28:14,
the only thing ohr has to focus on is to pack up and get out! time is ticking, just a few month left! we will decide about our police, not you or anybody else. in germany and other states police can´t even cross federal states. not to mention that nothing in bosnia will happen until kosovo is solved!
Poslao: 2007-10-18 19:32:39,
CC, the thriving Croatia has ethnically cleansed most of its Serbian population. Your country is allowing Croatia into EU and NATO regardless of that, effectively rewarding the aggression. Are you also ashamed of that, or maybe proud?