European Parliament report is devastating for the policies of HDZ and SNSD, but also for the Troika's stumbling between condescension and fantasy!

By: Rasim Belko

If anyone in Bosnia and Herzegovina believed in fairy tales about the European path, European values, and a European future under the current government in recent months, after the adoption of the European Parliament's report on BiH for 2023-2024, they no longer have the right to political naivety.

Because it is precisely from Brussels that what domestic political cartels, ethno-national elites, and their salon European nodding heads have been trying to hide from the public has arrived: the truth about the political situation in BiH is bleak, regressive, and dangerously far from any European standards.

First, let's clarify the most important thing: the Serb-Croat political intention to divide the country through ethnic laws, false reform processes, and political trading of identities has suffered an official European defeat. Zovko's operation to sneak "Čović's election reform" through the back door into the Report did not pass either. It failed. And that is not a small thing.

The European Parliament has explicitly stated:

"Regrets that political actors have not yet adopted the necessary amendments to the Constitution and the Election Law to align them with the European Convention on Human Rights and implement the relevant decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Court of Human Rights, with the aim of eliminating all forms of inequality and discrimination in the electoral process and ensuring non-discrimination, protection of fundamental rights and equality for all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to move ‘from Dayton to Brussels’; reiterates that the non-implementation of these decisions is not in line with the EU values and the European integration process of Bosnia and Herzegovina; emphasizes the need for all constitutional and electoral reform processes to be inclusive… reiterates that no electoral reform should deepen or entrench ethnic divisions".

So, it is clear: no division along ethnic lines, no cementing of discrimination under the guise of the European path.

The Troika's Embarrassment

And while Zovko, Čović, and Dodik are striving to divide the country into three ethnic enclaves and declare it a European norm, the Troika (SDP, NiP, NS) had the task of selling fog about a “historic success” and opening negotiations.

For two years, they convinced citizens that “Europe is coming to us,” that they had “unblocked processes,” but in reality, they hadn't even unlocked the door. The report exposed them as incapable political statisticians and accomplices in the ethno-national cartel, which is brilliantly summarized in the EP Report's formulation:

"Calls on the BiH authorities to reform the coordination mechanism for EU affairs, which has proven to be inefficient and ineffective… to submit a national program for the adoption of the EU acquis (NPAA)… and to establish an operational negotiation structure, including the appointment of a negotiation team and a chief negotiator fully empowered to represent the country’s positions".

In other words: the Troika and its partners SNSD and HDZ have nothing. No program, no structure, no negotiator, no plan. Only empty press conferences and protocol selfies with European bureaucrats.

And that lie about progress will now be very difficult to sell to citizens, because the Report is extremely negative in almost all segments: judiciary is corrupt, rule of law does not exist, freedom of the media is threatened, employment is based on favoritism, political blackmail is a daily occurrence.

Dodik was not spared either. The European Parliament once again explicitly condemned his destructive policy:

"Strongly condemns the repeated use of inflammatory rhetoric and the adoption of secessionist laws and policies by Milorad Dodik… including the marking of the so-called ‘Day of Republika Srpska’ and ‘Day of the State of Serbia’; emphasizes that such activities undermine the constitutional order, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and are not compatible with its EU accession process”.

Unlike the domestic judicial farce that fears Dodik and his interest group, the European Parliament has placed him where he politically belongs — in the rank of a serious threat to the country's stability.

The judiciary sector is, as expected, described as scandalously non-compliant with European standards, and high-level corruption cases remain unpunished. The European Parliament told them:

"Expresses regret that the laws on public procurement, conflict of interest, and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) have not yet been aligned with European standards… calls for impartial and effective prosecution of high-level corruption cases”.

Which means – you have a judiciary to protect elites, not to protect citizens.

Attacks on journalists — a standard of Balkan despotism

And finally, what we all know and politicians deny: journalists are exposed to threats, blackmail, and political SLAPP lawsuits. And it is written directly:

"Condemns political pressure, attacks, intimidation, threats… against journalists and media workers, particularly by high-ranking politicians, their organizations, or actors connected to foreign interests".

The European Union knows, the domestic public knows, only the Troika, Čović, Dodik, and Zovko pretend not to know.

The European report has finally put an end to the policy of ethnic blackmail and trading. It stated that there is no reform without the abolition of discrimination, no negotiations without institutions that work in the interest of all citizens, no European path with Dodik, Čović, and clearly not with the Troika either, because that combination in power has not even attempted to move towards the system of European values.

And the European Parliament defines this in these parts of the Report:

"Regrets that the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have failed to unite society or create a just and functional system in the country, but have largely contributed to deepening divisions; calls on the European Union and its member states to initiate a transparent and inclusive reform process that would enable the sustainable transformation of the Dayton Peace Agreement through a constitution fully aligned with European standards and principles, with the aim of establishing a functional, accountable, representative, and civically legitimate system of governance, in order to overcome ethno-national divisions and achieve sustainable progress on the path to the European Union.

And now it is up to the citizens – either they will allow political cartels to continue serving them lies about integrations without content, or they will finally demand real, not ethnic, reform processes.

And let the Troika try to explain to the citizens now where that European spring is. Because, as things stand – a cold winter has long arrived for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Brussels, and the sun is somewhere behind dark clouds.