ANP as a Chess Game Where the State is the Stake

The story about BiH's Annual National Programme (ANP) for cooperation with NATO has been in focus for some time. August 20th is crucial, when the members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina are expected to consider the issue of the ANP.

Completely opposing views come from the coalition partners in power in BiH - Milorad Dodik, member of the Presidency and president of SNSD, stated that he doesn't even know if the ANP, as a topic and document, will be included on the agenda of the next Presidency session?

Sources from SNSD explain that Dodik might actually complain about the procedure itself, as there is no trace of who and why is sending the ANP to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially considering the fact that the Council of Ministers of BiH has not adopted this document?

If the ANP is not "inserted" onto the agenda of the next BiH Presidency session, the document will be neither rejected nor accepted, which will prolong the current agony in the country.
The Chairman of the Presidency of BiH, Željko Komšić, believes that Dodik has three options regarding the Annual National Programme (ANP): to accept it, to reject it in its entirety, or to propose amendments to the ANP. If Dodik rejects all options, Komšić has stated that he will not support the confirmation of Dodik's Zoran Tegeltija as the candidate for the new Council of Ministers.

Our interlocutors believe that this is the key question: Who will modify the current ANP. The current composition of the Council of Ministers will not do it, as they have not adopted the ANP. SDS ministers resolutely refused for this document, the ANP, to even be on the agenda.

Dodik, if he agrees to this option, will demand that the amendments to the ANP be carried out by the new Council of Ministers. Then, the reaction of Željko Komšić, who insists that the appointment of the candidate and the adoption of the ANP be done together, will be awaited.

A somewhat delayed reaction came from Šefik Džaferović. His statement is between Komšić's and Dodik's. Džaferović expects a compromise. It is now clear that the signed principles of Bakir Izetbegović, Dodik, and Dragan Čović are actually a dead letter. Džaferović did not specify who should make the compromise, as his party leader Izetbegović is one of the signatories of the Principles. Is Komšić now alone in the fight to resolve the ANP and Zoran Tegeltija issues together? As Džaferović stated, both the ANP and the appointment of the candidate are legal obligations and fall within the domain of the rule of law. He stated that there are no partial solutions, but he did not firmly commit to whether there is a candidate without the ANP, as Komšić already has.

We will have to wait until August 20th for the answer to "who is for what". On that day, a regular session of the BiH Presidency will be held at Komšić's request, followed by an extraordinary session at Dodik's request. The ANP will be discussed at the first session, and the candidate for the formation of the Council of Ministers of BiH will be discussed at the second, ten months after the Parliamentary Elections in BiH. As things stand now, the outcome of the second session depends on the first.