Bosnia only mentioned in passing in Berlin: New protests in BiH not ruled out for autumn!

The conference on the Western Balkans, to be held on August 28 in Berlin and organized by the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel, will only touch upon the topic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in passing, says for BH news agency Patria (NAP) Bodo Weber, a German analyst from the Center for Democratization Policy (DPC). Merkel has called a meeting of European and regional officials for the end of this week, but expectations in BiH were much higher.

- This is truly a regional conference where common, regional topics will be in focus. Bosnia will only be mentioned as one of the remaining challenges - but nothing more than that in my assessment – he states.

Asked about the possibility of Germany becoming more strongly engaged in BiH after the elections, Weber says he hopes this will happen, similar to the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia in 2011.

- Whether that will happen and what such an initiative might look like, no one can say at this moment, because even officials in Berlin do not yet know. Everything is in an early phase of thinking and consultation. But if Berlin ultimately decides to engage, it will be a truly new European Union policy towards BiH – he adds.

However, he emphasizes that this depends on many factors, including the question of who will succeed Catherine Ashton in Brussels as the EU's Special Representative for Security and Foreign Affairs, and whether the crises in Ukraine, Iraq, and Gaza will further escalate.

- The question is whether the EU and the US, in such circumstances, have enough capacity to deal with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Not to mention the question of whether the social protests we have seen will return in the autumn – says Weber, as reported by Patria. Merkel has invited leaders of the region's states and the European Commission for August 28, and representatives of BiH will be Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH Vjekoslav Bevanda, Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Zlatko Lagumdžija, and Boris Tučić, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations.