Two-day session of the PIC Steering Board begins, new High Representative for BiH to be elected

(Patria) - The Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council begins its regular two-day session today, with several current topics on the agenda, including the election of a new High Representative for BiH.

Christian Schmidt submitted his resignation ahead of the UN Security Council session on May 12, ending his five-year stay in BiH. His resignation is the result of certain diplomatic pressures, primarily from the United States.

Although Schmidt did not fully specify what demands were placed before him, one of the key points is the issue of state property. The decision on a temporary ban on disposing of state property is still in effect, and the BiH Parliamentary Assembly has yet to adopt a law that would annul the High Representative's decision.

Ministers from France and Germany arrived in BiH ahead of this session and held several meetings with BiH officials.

Among PIC members, there are differing opinions regarding the new High Representative and the powers they will have.

The first proposal that emerged was for Italian diplomat Antonio Zanardi Landi to be the new High Representative, which met with opposition from several European countries, including France, which had its own proposal.

The United States maintained its position that the PIC should support Landi, and during yesterday, an agreement was reportedly reached, and Landi is expected to be confirmed as the new High Representative with a two-year mandate.

Antonio Zanardi Landi was born in 1950 in Udine, graduated in law from the University of Padua, and began his diplomatic career in the late 1970s. He was the first Italian to attend the prestigious French school ENA in Paris, an institution through which numerous European statesmen and diplomats have passed.

During his decades-long career, he served in Ottawa, Tehran, London, and the Vatican, but his most politically significant mandates were in Serbia and Russia. From 2004 to 2006, he was Italy's ambassador to the then state union of Serbia and Montenegro, while from 2010 to 2013, he served as ambassador to the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan. After that, he became a diplomatic advisor to the President of Italy, and today he serves as the ambassador of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the Holy See.