BiH coordination mechanism cost 208 million KM, how much more - we'll see

Written by: Slaven Kovačević, advisor to the Chairman of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić

I see there are questions about why the funds from the European Union's Growth Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina have been reduced, which are legitimate and important questions. To even be able to offer an adequate answer, it is necessary to recall some things.

The first of these, do you remember the story about the "Open Balkan" and how we, who were against it, received criticism? The Growth Plan is part of the European Union project, aimed at establishing a Common Regional Market (CRM), for which the European Union planned around 30 billion euros in total.

On the other hand, there was the idea of the "Open Balkan" with 0 euros and subordination to the economic systems of neighbouring countries, which we disputed and were attacked in the media without any valid reason. Secondly, for this specific project, the European Union allocated 6 billion euros from its investment programme (EIP) for all 6 Western Balkan countries, specifically: 2 billion in grants and 4 billion in loan funds (has anyone ever told you that there are also debts or loans?).

To activate these funds, in the distribution decided by the European Union, you need to submit your own Reform Agenda concerning 4 goals and 7 areas that need to be implemented in a planned manner (not Dodik's or Čović's goals or agendas, but European standards, especially since Dodik through every document wants to achieve greater international visibility of the entity Republika Srpska with the clear aim of creating the illusion that this entity is a subject of international law, which is incorrect and very dangerous for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Čović imposes something that is not European standards, such as "legitimate political representation of constituent peoples").

Let me remind you, one of the more important elements for Bosnia and Herzegovina occurred in Brussels in June 2022, within the framework of the "Brussels Agreement" with which our country committed to 8 tasks from the 14 key priorities of the European Commission's Opinion from 2019.

Allow me to say that I personally participated in that "Brussels Agreement", as evidenced by the photo I am offering you, on the basis of which Bosnia and Herzegovina received candidate status (although the current government attributes this to itself without any reason), and later conditional opening of negotiations. So the story began, back in 2022, with the participation of all political parties from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Now we come to the important thing. That document is very important for all future reforms concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina. What is the problem? Very simple. Someone, and here I mean the current government, for their opportunistic reasons, invented and formed a Working Group for the Reform Agenda, modelled on the Coordination Mechanism invented by some previous government, which in the European Commission's Opinion from 2019 itself was assessed as an inefficient mechanism, and in the latest European Parliament Report as a serious problem.

Besides the fact that such a Coordination Mechanism for EU matters has no constitutional authority (foreign policy is not their competence), it clearly represents a problem for Bosnia and Herzegovina's progress towards the European Union. What is the consequence? Reduction of funds to Bosnia and Herzegovina by approximately 200 million KM, because someone prefers the Coordination Mechanism over funds from the European Union.

Such people need to know only one important thing, and that is that the European Union requires one (and not 14 or 15 addresses for negotiations). That address is the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one government which in Bosnia and Herzegovina is called the Council of Ministers. I especially want to say that no one has said how much of that is grants and how much is loan (debt-incurring) funds and to what extent, but about that another time.

Who is to blame or responsible for us losing part of the funds? Exclusively those who, for the sake of rotten political compromises, agreed to and formed the Coordination Mechanism for European Integration (which is an unconstitutional body), on the basis of which the Working Group for the Reform Agenda was created (which is again an unconstitutional body) that was supposed to draft or give consent and, through the Council of Ministers, submit that infamous Reform Agenda to the European Union.

Responsibility lies exclusively with those who devalued state powers and transferred state authorities to lower levels of government, with the aim of some political compromise (albeit somewhat unconstitutional), and in such an environment were unable to submit the Reform Agenda, which concerns 4 goals and 7 areas.

In other words, it is not just a part of them responsible, as some want to falsely present, but all of them from the current government who participated in this activity by creating some unnecessary and unconstitutional coordination mechanisms and working groups, for the sake of some political compromises. That is the problem. That desire and effort for an opportunistic compromise (called the Coordination Mechanism or some working group on the same model) costs this country 208 million KM from European funds, and what the additional price will be, we will see.

Those who think that the European Union will faint at the mention of Bosnia and Herzegovina or be lenient towards some supposedly new version of "new" or "better government" are living in a deep delusion. It cannot be more concrete. European integration is not for everyone.