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EU Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina (3) EU Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina
EU Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina (3) EU Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina(3) EU Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia-Herzegovina faces a long road as it tries to become EU member
01 March 2016
Following concerted international pressure, Republika Srpska President Dodik 8 Feb announced controversial planned referendum challenging authority of state judiciary to be postponed. Bosnia submitted formal EU membership application 15 Feb.
ICG - Bosnia’s Future Europe Report N°232 - 10 July 2014
While the physical scars of the 1992-1995 Bosnia war have healed, political agony and ethnic tension persist. Real peace requires a new constitution and bottom-up political change.
Bosnia’s Future, Europe Report N°232, 10 Jul 2014
While the physical scars of the 1992-1995 Bosnia war have healed, political agony and ethnic tension persist. Real peace requires a new constitution and bottom-up political change.Bosnia’s Dangerous Tango: Islam and Nationalism, Europe Briefing N°70, 26 Feb 2013
Occasional violence notwithstanding, Islamism poses little danger in Bosnia, whose real risk stems from clashing national ideologies, especially as Islamic religious leaders increasingly reply with Bosniak nationalism to renewed Croat and Serb challenges to the state’s territorial integrity.
босанскиBosnia’s Gordian Knot: Constitutional Reform, Europe Briefing N°68, 12 Jul 2012
Only thorough constitutional reform can resolve Bosnia and Herzegovina’s deep political crisis and implement a landmark European Court of Human Rights decision to put an end to ethnic discrimination.
босанскиBrčko Unsupervised, Europe Briefing N°66, 8 Dec 2011
The international community should start a process to close its supervision of Bosnia’s Brčko District at its meeting next week and develop a new strategy to better help domestic institutions address governance challenges and corruption, while retaining the ability to sanction any attempts to undermine security.
босанскиBosnia: What Does Republika Srpska Want?, Europe Report N°214, 6 Oct 2011
If the leaders of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) continue driving every conflict with Sarajevo to the brink, they risk disaster for themselves, the country and the Western Balkans.
босански русскийBosnia: State Institutions under Attack, Europe Briefing N°62, 6 May 2011
Bosnia faces its worst crisis since war ended in 1995. Violence is probably not imminent, but there is a real prospect of it in the near future unless all sides pull away from the downward cycle of their maximalist positions.
босанскиBosnia: Europe’s Time to Act, Europe Briefing N°59, 11 Jan 2011
The European Union (EU) should make 2011 the year when it finally takes the lead international role in helping Bosnia on its journey from a war-ravaged ward to a stable member state.
босански русскийFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – A Parallel Crisis , Europe Report N°209, 28 Sep 2010
Whether the Federation – the mostly Bosniak and Croat part of Bosnia and Herzegovina – can solve its government crisis after 3 October elections will go a long way to determining whether the country can survive.
босанскиBosnia’s Dual Crisis, Europe Briefing N°57, 12 Nov 2009
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) post-war status quo has ended but the international community risks muddling the transition by delaying decisions on a new kind of engagement.
босанскиBosnia: A Test of Political Maturity in Mostar, Europe Briefing N°54 , 27 Jul 2009
The administration of Mostar is collapsing, a warning sign for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
Bosnia’s Incomplete Transition: Between Dayton and Europe, Europe Report N°198 , 9 Mar 2009
While Bosnia and Herzegovina’s time as an international protectorate is ending, which is in itself most welcome, now is the wrong time to rush the transition.
srpskiEnsuring Bosnia’s Future: A New International Engagement Strategy, Europe Report N°180 , 15 Feb 2007
International policy in Bosnia is in disarray, and a new engagement strategy is required. The present High Representative, whose performance in 2006 has been much criticised, announced on 23 January 2007 that he would leave by mid-year. The Peace Implementation Council (PIC), to whom he reports and which is responsible for guiding implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords, meets on 27 February to decide the way forward.
русскийBosnia’s Stalled Police Reform: No Progress, No EU, Europe Report N°164, 6 Sep 2005
The international strategy for Bosnia and Herzegovina risks derailment. It consists entirely of preparing the country for eventual European Union (EU) membership in the hope that integration processes will overcome ethno-political divides and their intertwined economic and criminal interests. However, the police reform needed to begin negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU appears hopelessly blocked.
русскийEUFOR: Changing Bosnia’s Security Arrangements, Europe Briefing N°31, 29 Jun 2004
In a decision hailed by member states of both organisations, NATO announced at its 28-29 June 2004 summit in Istanbul that the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) it leads in Bosnia (BiH) will be replaced by an EU-led peacekeeping force (EUFOR) by the end of 2004.
босанскиBuilding Bridges in Mostar, Europe Report N°150, 20 Nov 2003
Making another attempt to unite the divided city of Mostar has become, unexpectedly but appropriately, a very high international priority in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) in 2003.
босанскиBosnia’s Nationalist Governments: Paddy Ashdown and the Paradoxes of State Building, Europe Report N°146, 22 Jul 2003
The return of the nationalist parties to power after the October 2002 general elections in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) was widely assessed as a calamity. Some observers went so far as to claim that it signified the failure of the international peace-building mission over the previous seven years.
босанскиThessaloniki and After II: The EU and Bosnia, Europe Briefing N°28, 20 Jun 2003
Afflicted still by the physical, psychological and political wounds of war, and encumbered by the flawed structures imposed by the international community to implement peace, Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereafter: Bosnia) is not yet capable of plotting a strategy or undertaking the measures likely to win it membership in the European Union (EU).
Bosnia’s Brcko: Getting In, Getting On and Getting Out, Europe Report N°144, 2 Jun 2003
It is time to consider the future of Brcko District. In particular, it is time to chart an exit strategy for the supervisory regime that will serve both to preserve and extend its and the people of Brcko’s accomplishments.
босанскиThe Continuing Challenge of Refugee Return in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe Report N°137, 13 Dec 2002
In preparing for and orchestrating the proximity talks that marked the end of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH), the authors of the Dayton Peace Accords (DPA) placed a particularly high priority on the return of refugees and internally displaced persons to their pre-war homes.
босанскиBosnia’s Alliance for (Smallish) Change, Europe Report N°132, 2 Aug 2002
Put together under the tutelage of representatives of the international community in the aftermath of the November 2000 general elections, the ten-party coalition known as the Democratic Alliance for Change has governed the larger of Bosnia & Herzegovina’s two entities and led the state-level Council of Ministers since early 2001.
босанскиPolicing the Police in Bosnia: A Further Reform Agenda, Europe Report N°130, 10 May 2002
Despite more than six years of increasingly intrusive reforms carried out at the behest of the UN Mission in Bosnia & Herzegovina (UNMIBH), the local police cannot yet be counted upon to enforce the law.
босанскиImplementing Equality: The “Constituent Peoples” Decision in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe Report N°128, 16 Apr 2002
In July 2000, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia & Herzegovina made an historic ruling requiring the two entities, the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska (RS), to amend their constitutions to ensure the full equality of the country's three “constituent peoples” throughout its territory.
босанскиCourting Disaster: The Misrule of Law in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe Report N°127, 25 Mar 2002
The law does not yet rule in Bosnia & Herzegovina. What prevail instead are nationally defined politics, inconsistency in the application of law, corrupt and incompetent courts, a fragmented judicial space, half-baked or half-implemented reforms, and sheer negligence. Bosnia is, in short, a land where respect for and confidence in the law and its defenders is weak.
босанскиBosnia: Reshaping the International Machinery, Europe Report N°121, 29 Nov 2001
After six years and billions of dollars spent, peace implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains far from complete. Reshaping (‘recalibrating’, in local jargon) the international community (IC) presence is vital if the peace process is to have a successful outcome.
босанскиThe Wages of Sin: Confronting Bosnia’s Republika Srpska, Europe Report N°118, 8 Oct 2001
By recognising Republika Srpska (RS) as a legitimate polity and constituent entity of the new Bosnia, the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement embraced a contradiction. For the RS was founded as a stepping stone to a ‘Greater Serbia’ and forged in atrocities against – and mass expulsions of – non-Serbs.
босанскиBosnia’s Precarious Economy: Still not Open for Business, Europe Report N°115, 7 Aug 2001
Bosnia’s economic reality is still bleak. After more than five years and five billion dollars of Dayton implementation, the country seems only at the beginning of an economic transition that should have begun in 1996.
No Early Exit: NATO’s Continuing Challenge in Bosnia, Europe Report N°110, 22 May 2001
NATO-led troops have played a vital part in securing the peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) since their arrival in December 1995.
Turning Strife to Advantage: A Blueprint to Integrate the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe Report N°106, 15 Mar 2001
The current attempts by the leadership of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) of Bosnia and Herzegovina to secede from the legal and constitutional structures of the state are the most serious challenge yet to the post-war order established by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords.
Bosnia’s November Elections: Dayton Stumbles, Europe Report N°104, 18 Dec 2000
Despite five years and five billion US dollars of international community investment in Bosnia, the 11 November Bosnian elections demonstrated once again that international engagement has failed to provide a sustainable basis for a functioning state, capable of surviving an international withdrawal.
War Criminals in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska: Who are the People in Your Neighbourhood?, Europe Report N°103, 2 Nov 2000
Five years after the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, which brought an end to almost four years of bloody war in Bosnia, many of those believed to have carried out some of the war’s worst atrocities remain at large.
Bosnia’s refugee logjam breaks: is the international community ready?, Europe Report N°95, 31 May 2000
The return of refugees to areas where they are an ethnic minority is crucial if Bosnia is to be re-established as a successful multiethnic society and the effects of wartime ethnic cleansing are to be reversed.
Bosnia’s Municipal Elections 2000: Winners and Losers, Europe Report N°91, 28 Apr 2000
The international community can draw a degree of comfort from the results of Bosnia’s 8 April 2000 municipal elections.
Reunifying Mostar: Opportunities for Progress, Europe Report N°90, 19 Apr 2000
Reunification of Mostar is key to the reintegration of separatist Herzegovinian Bosnian Croats into Bosnia.
Denied Justice: Individuals Lost in a Legal Maze, Europe Report N°85, 22 Feb 2000
Thousands of people try to find their way daily through an immensely complicated labyrinth established by the three separate and very often conflicting legal systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
Rule of Law in Public Administration: Confusion and Discrimination in a Post-Communist Bureaucracy, Europe Report N°84, 15 Dec 1999
To date, little attention has been paid to the role public administration plays in enforcing or violating the human rights and civil liberties of Bosnia and Herzegovina's citizens.
Is Dayton Failing?: Bosnia Four Years After the Peace Agreement, Europe Report N°80, 28 Oct 1999
In anticipation of the fourth anniversary on 21 November 1999 of the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, this report presents a detailed analysis of the agreement and the future of the Bosnian peace process.
Preventing Minority Return in Bosnia and Herzegovina The Anatomy of Hate and Fear, Europe Report N°73, 2 Aug 1999
The 1999 action plan of the Reconstruction and Return Task Force (RRTF) represents the most determined effort yet to implement a policy of mass minority return in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But the signs at mid-season are that the results for 1999 will once again be disappointing.
Rule Over Law: Obstacles to the Development of an Independent Judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe Report N°72, 5 Jul 1999
ICG, with the support of the European Commission, has established a project to promote justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Republika Srpska in The Post-Kosovo Era: Collateral Damage and Transformation, Europe Report N°71, 5 Jul 1999
Repercussions from Kosovo continue to shake Republika Srpska (RS), and may prove a catalyst for further transformation and reform.
Republika Srpska – Poplasen, Brcko and Kosovo: Three Crises and Out?, Europe Report N°62, 4 Jun 1999
The early part of 1999 has been turbulent for Republika Srpska. Political life has been unsettled by three separate and hardly-related crises: the decision of the High Representative to remove from office the RS President Nikola Poplasen; the decision of International Arbitrator Roberts Owen to give the municipality of Brcko neither to RS nor to the Federation but to both as a condominium; and the NATO air-strikes on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).
Why Will No One Invest In Bosnia and Herzegovina?, Europe Report N°64, 21 Apr 1999
The donor countries hoped the governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina would use the promised $ 5.1 Billion post-war reconstruction aid to undertake the structural changes necessary to transition from communism to capitalism.
Breaking The Mould: Electoral Reform In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Europe Report N°56, 4 Mar 1999
Electoral reform is on the agenda this year in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For too long the country has been ruled by leaders who draw support from only one of the three main ethnic groups.
Brcko: A Comprehensive Solution, Europe Report N°55, 2 Feb 1999
The Arbitral Tribunal on Brcko meets this month, and may or may not this time make its final decision, after postponements in 1997 and 1998.
To Build a Peace: Recommendations for the Madrid Peace Implementation Council Meeting, Europe Report N°52, 15 Dec 1998
Three years after the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia), the country has many of the trappings usually associated with statehood such as a common flag, currency, vehicle licence plate and passport.
Whither Bosnia?, Europe Report N°43, 9 Sep 1998
Despite considerable progress since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) in November 1995 in consolidating the peace and rebuilding normal life in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia), international efforts do not appear to be achieving the goal of establishing Bosnia as a stable, functioning state, able at some point to run its own affairs without the need for continued international help.
Doing Democracy a Disservice: 1998 Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe Report N°42, 9 Sep 1998
The stakes in Bosnia’s forthcoming elections, the fifth internationally-supervised poll since the end of the war, could not be higher, for Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) and also for the international community.
Too Little Too Late: Implementation of the Sarajevo Declaration, Europe Report N°44, 9 Sep 1998
Sarajevo’s Bosniac authorities were given the opportunity to demonstrate their much-vaunted commitment to multi-ethnicity when, on 3 February 1998, representatives of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia), the Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina (Federation), Sarajevo Canton and the international community adopted the Sarajevo Declaration.
Impunity In Drvar, Europe Report N°40, 20 Aug 1998
Croat extremists put Drvar into the spotlight in April 1998 with murders and riots against returning Serbs and the international community.
Changing Course?: Implications of the Divide in Bosnian Croat Politics, Europe Report N°39, 13 Aug 1998
The reintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) has been consistently obstructed by the main Bosnian Croat party, the Croat Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZBiH).
The Konjic Conundrum: Why Minorities Have Failed to Return to Model Open City, Europe Report N°35, 19 Jun 1998
On 1 July 1997 Konjic became the first municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) to be officially recognised as an Open City by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
A Tale of Two Cities: Return of Displaced Persons to Jajce and Travnik, Europe Report N°34, 3 Jun 1998
Croat-controlled Jajce and Bosniac-controlled Travnik are both municipalities to which displaced persons who do not belong to the majority ethnic group have been returning in substantial numbers.
Minority Return or Mass Relocation?, Europe Report N°33, 14 May 1998
International organisations working to help displaced Bosnians return to their pre-war homes – arguably the most important element of the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) – have declared 1998 the “year of minority returns”.
Brcko: What Bosnia Could Be, Europe Report Nº31, 10 Feb 1998
The fate of the Brcko area, whether it should be in the Federation or Republika Srpska, was considered too contentious to be resolved in the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) and was left to binding arbitration.
Rebuilding a Multi-Ethnic Sarajevo: The need for Minority Returns, Europe Report N°30, 2 Feb 1998
To many who followed the Bosnian war from abroad, Sarajevo symbolised Bosnia and Herzegovina’s rich tradition of multi-culturalism and multi-ethnicity.
A Hollow Promise? Return of Bosnian Serb Displaced Persons to Drvar, Europe Report N°29, 19 Jan 1998
In Bosnia’s local elections on 13 and 14 September 1997, parties representing displaced Serbs from Croat-held Drvar, Bosansko Grahovo and Glamoc won either a majority or a plurality of council seats in these three municipalities in Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A Peace or just a Cease-Fire? The Military Equation in Post Dayton Bosnia, Europe Report N°28, 15 Dec 1997
Achieving the ambitious goals of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (DPA) – forging a unified state out of the shaky Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and resistant and unstable Republika Srpska – is a complex and difficult undertaking which has not been made easier by the quest for a so-called “exit strategy”.
Dayton: Two Years On, A Review of Progress in Implementing the Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia, Europe Report N°27, 19 Nov 1997
Prospects for lasting peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina have improved in recent months as a result of a clear shift in approach towards implementation of the peace plan on the part of the international community.
House Burnings: Obstruction of the Right to Return to Drvar, Europe Report N°24, 6 Sep 1997
On the night of 2-3 May 1997, some 25 houses were set ablaze in the Croat-controlled municipality of Drvar, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federation).
Going Nowhere Fast: Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe Report N°23, 1 May 1997
Apart from stopping the fighting, silencing the guns and separating forces, the single clearest promise of the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) was that Bosnian refugees and internally displaced persons would be able to return home.
Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina: How International Support Can Be More Effective, Report N°21, 18 Mar 1997
Given the critical role that the media played in the destruction of both Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the on-going role they play in fanning the flames of ethnic hatred, the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina has devoted much time, energy and money to this field.
Why Bosnia Needs NATO (Again)
Louise Arbour, Wesley ClarkForeign Policy, 29 Apr 2010
While the physical scars of the 1992-1995 Bosnia war have healed, political agony and ethnic tension persist. Real peace requires a new constitution and bottom-up political change.
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