Europe Sends Ultimatum: Return Citizens' Rights and Abolish Ethnic Monopoly or Forget Membership!

By Rasim Belko

If one report can be read as a slap in the face, then it is this year's European Commission Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina. And it's a slap with a message that if Bosnia and Herzegovina does not become a civic state, then it has no business in the European Union.

The European Commission, in its most direct tone to date, says what the public here has known for decades: our Constitution is institutionalized discrimination.

A country where a citizen cannot be elected if they are not Bosniak, Croat, or Serb cannot be called a democracy. You can call it whatever you want, but not a state of European values and the rule of law.

Bosnia and Herzegovina today is a country where the right to politics is measured by an ethnic yardstick. If you are not "constituent," then you are a statistic. You watch others decide your future.

Therefore, the message from Brussels is very clear – reform the Constitution, align with the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and stop pretending to live in a democracy. Because this construct, where "constituent status" is held as a sacred cow, is not the protection of peoples, but a shackle on citizens' rights.

Political elites persistently repeat the mantra of "balance of constituent status." But that balance is a farce. There is no balance when three ethnic groups hold the state as a private company, and all other citizens are like slaves without full rights.

The Commission clearly defines it: "Constitutional and electoral reforms are needed to ensure political equality and non-discrimination of all citizens." Translated from bureaucratic to plain language: "abolish the apartheid you call consensus".

A civic state does not mean the disappearance of peoples. It is only the end of their abuse. It means that no one will be less valuable because they are not a "true" Bosniak, an "authentic" Croat, or a "loyal" Serb. But alas, that has become a dangerous idea here. Because when a citizen becomes more important than a people, party seats, tenders, and other benefits as by-products of ethnic balancing disappear.

The European Union no longer has patience for fairy tales about Bosnia and Herzegovina's "peculiarities." The report clearly states that without equality of citizens, there are no negotiations, no membership, no future.

The EU will not legalize injustice. It will not recognize a state where the right to be elected depends on one's surname. It will not finance a system that produces an ethnic elite and impoverished citizens.

In other words, Europe is no longer buying the story of three peoples, but is looking for 3.5 million equal people.

Bosnia and Herzegovina stands today at a crossroads between the past and the future.
In the past, "peoples" had everything, and citizens had nothing. In the future, if we ever reach it, and if we want to move forward, we will have to have citizens with a state, and "peoples" with an identity, as everywhere in Europe.

Therefore, the next time someone tells you that a civic state is "Bosniak hegemony," know that they are lying and lying out of self-interest. Because a civic state means the end of ethnic monopoly. It means no one will be able to rule in the name of fear anymore.

The European Commission wrote it with restraint, but the meaning is clear. Either we will become a civic state, or we will forever remain a project that never entered the society of ordered European states!