EU Questionnaire - The Forgotten Perspective

By: Prof. Dr. Dženan Đonlagić

Without the Law on Land Denationalization and the Law on Restitution, Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be able to join the EU! These are two strategic laws without which we will not stop the intentions of nationalist policies to divide the state on exclusively ethno-territorial principles.

We are witnessing this trend intensifying since the end of the 2014 elections.

These are two laws that can, institutionally, cement the greatest value of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is its multi-ethnicity on every inch of its territory.

Why have right-wing parties opposed the adoption of these laws for years? Because they know that only if there is no land denationalization and restitution can they complete their project of rounding off the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina according to the ethno-territorial principle and herd citizens into ethnic pens.

All post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which are now full members of the European Union, adopted the aforementioned laws before their accession.

This must also be done by the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Therefore, there is no membership in the European Union without the prior return of confiscated land and property, because private property is sacred, and if we want to be a full member of the European Union, we must respect it as a state.

The current right-wing government in the country, no matter how hard it tries to present EU membership as its goal, is deceiving citizens because it does not want to adopt these laws that have been "marinating" in the drawers of state institutions for years. Why would they support such laws when many of their party members and other financial sponsors have acquired property that they could only dream of in the European Union?