Austrian 'Der Standard': Eichhorst and Varhelyi support HDZ's wishes for the third electoral unit

(Patria) - Germany advocates sanctions against SNSD leader Milorad Dodik, and former British Foreign Secretary William Hague even calls for sending NATO troops, but, according to the Austrian "Der Standard", Angelina Eichhorst and Oliver Varhelyi stand in their way.

According to the Austrian newspaper, Germany and the Benelux countries are in favor of imposing sanctions on Dodik, with the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Finland also interested. It is unclear how many EU countries would support sanctions against the SNSD leader, who has pushed Bosnia and Herzegovina into its biggest crisis since the end of the war in 1995.

"The EU is divided on this issue because Dodik also receives support - for example from the right-wing populist heads of government of Hungary and Slovenia, Viktor Orban and Janez Jansa. It is already known that he has received it from Russia and Serbia," they state, as reported by Klix.

The newspaper notes that sanctions require approval from 15 EU countries. With Dodik's threat that the Republika Srpska will withdraw from the joint army, judiciary, and tax and customs authorities, the Republika Srpska could become a kind of rogue state - similar to Transnistria in the Republic of Moldova.

"The European External Action Service is as indecisive in the case of Dodik as EU countries like Austria. Director at the European External Action Service (EEAS) Angelina Eichhorst advocates for a change in the electoral law and, like Hungarian Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Oliver Varhelyi, supports the wishes of the Croatian nationalist HDZ," they believe.

The HDZ wants its own electoral unit where it has a majority, so that in the future only HDZ politicians can be elected as Croatian representatives to the state Presidency, they add, stating that HDZ leader Dragan Čović is politically closely connected with Dodik.

The United Kingdom has reacted much more clearly than the EU to Dodik's destabilization, the author thinks. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss put the Balkans on the agenda of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting on November 30 in Riga. There is also concern in London about the rearmament in Serbia. Former Foreign Secretary William Hague recently wrote in the Times about Dodik that Britain and the EU should join the US in imposing sanctions on anyone who undermines the Dayton Peace Agreement. Dodik has been under US sanctions since 2017.

"It is crucial that the small European force known as EUFOR be reinforced by NATO troops stationed in strategically critical areas such as Brcko and Tuzla airport," Hague said.