Picula: International community institutions tasked with implementing Dayton in BiH are somewhat weakened

Relations within BiH and relations towards BiH should be somewhat separated; the former are still firmly determined by the institutions of the 1995 Dayton Agreement, while the latter are being attempted to be modified by the European plan of the so-called new approach from December 2014 - said Tonino Picula, Member of the European Parliament and Chairman of the EP Delegation for relations with BiH, who spoke at the colloquium "EU Reform Agenda for Bosnia and Herzegovina" in Cadenabbia, Italy, according to Picula's cabinet, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

Picula said that "almost all institutions of the international community designed for the implementation of the peace agreement and oversight of key processes of the country's reconstruction and functioning have somewhat weakened. However, some new institutions, primarily those formed or to be formed by the EU, are not yet functional. The often-mentioned transition from the Dayton to the Brussels phase will therefore take a longer time."

The European Commission concluded that BiH has returned to the reform path and has begun to address priorities on the path to EU accession, as shown by the adoption of the Reform Agenda.
However, if one carefully reads this year's progress report, it is noticeable that in almost all chapters it is stated that BiH is at the initial, early stage of problem-solving, from functional judiciary, judicial reform, fight against corruption to, of course, its relations with international financial institutions.

And for some things, it is openly stated that they will be a real challenge for a country that has not yet established the necessary consensus on the implementation mechanisms of the path towards the EU.

The entire climate, image, and processes in BiH can be placed in a triangle of current events:

- On one hand, we have 20 years of Dayton, which will be marked in the country and abroad, on the other hand, the application for candidate status for EU membership is expected, but then you also have a referendum that once again calls into question relations that we believed were somehow settled. Therefore, in this triangle of events and processes, we must seek a complex assessment of what BiH is today and how to move towards the Brussels phase, exiting the Dayton phase - concluded Picula, reports Patria.