Does Brussels see Čović as a champion or gravedigger of EU integrations, or do they also favour the 'Serbian world' and a third entity?

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

"The answer is very simple: the legitimacy of the Croatian people, like any other people, will be even more strongly expressed in all our demands regarding changes to the Constitution, all laws, of course the Election Law, where collective rights are protected, and these are the Houses of Peoples and the Presidency, the Croatian people will elect their legitimate representatives", said the champion of European integrations (as he likes to call himself, and as officials from Brussels call him) Dragan Čović today, commenting on the latest ruling of the Court in Strasbourg!

According to that ruling, which Željko Komšić's advisor Slaven Kovačević states is positive, legitimate representation is discriminatory. This is quite enough for Čović to prove again, even before the official publication of the entire ruling, that his path for BiH to the European Union ends with BiH travelling there in three parts, which is of course absolutely impossible, so the champion is losing the race with civilization. It seems, however, that he has not moved far from 1993.

And how he interprets the hitherto consistency and adherence to the BiH Constitution was best revealed in the following statement:

"Bosnia and Herzegovina can be organized in various ways, and those who call for a civic state and see space for it through some ruling, we tell them very clearly that as long as we have a Croatian member of the Presidency in the constitution, as long as we have the Croatian club of the House of Peoples at both the entity and state levels, this clearly testifies to the need for constitutional equality of the Croatian people with the other two, and the legitimate representation of that people", Čović emphasized.

This is a completely false and arbitrary interpretation because Article V of the BiH Constitution states:

“The Presidency of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall consist of three members: one Bosniak and one Croat, each elected directly from the territory of the Federation, and one Serb, elected directly from the territory of the Republika Srpska”.

The fact that Čović recognizes only members of the HDZ and parties loyal to him for Croats is not the problem of the courts, but their wrong policy, which is anything but European! In the end, the Constitution is changed because there are courts that prove a discriminatory attitude towards someone in the community, and the HDZ persistently wants to gain a majority.

And when it comes to the abolition of the Houses of Peoples, which the HDZ has been abusing for years by refusing to revise the powers and competencies of those delegated to this legislative body by parties, not citizens, Čović's position has long been known.

“They want to create a civic state. In strategies, if you read them, you have to be in politics a little longer to see what everyone's political and party orientation is, you will find documents from 1990, 1996, 1997, at congresses, official documents, when 50 percent of the population structure, or that first majority, is reached, to start the process of creating a civic state in order to take control”, Čović said in June last year.

This statement came immediately after the visit of the leaders of BiH parties to Brussels, but Brussels has never officially commented or opposed Čović. On the contrary, the proposals of official Zagreb, which admitted to lobbying heavily for Christian Schmidt to make the changes he did on election night last year, were blindly followed!

No court rulings apparently help. The European Union coolly continues to stand by the self-proclaimed champion of EU integrations.

I am even inclined to fully believe Čović's claims that the story of a civic state is not accepted by international officials.

“The whole story is clear, it was necessary to create a feeling based on wartime sacrifice that should protect a population in BiH, I think that time is behind us and that we must clearly turn to a different way of thinking about BiH”, Čović said.

And as time passes, it becomes clearer what they come up with in that rethinking. It is certain that the narrative that it is impossible to implement the rulings of the Court in Strasbourg remains in effect.

Many doubt the enforceability of the ruling, including Čović's coalition partner, SDP president Nermin Nikšić, who also expressed hope that the ruling would be implemented, given how slowly things function in BiH!

After reading this, you cannot help but wonder if the SDP members, who for years claimed that the SDA would betray them in the negotiations for the Election Law, were rooting for betrayal, believing that they would thus avoid their own, because the SDA is no longer in power, and negotiations on the Election Law are imminent!

And the ruling, which may be called 'Kovačević vs. BiH', comes at the right time. It has taken trump cards out of the hands of both the HDZ and the Trojka. It will be difficult to outvote what is absolutely clear – Bosnia and Herzegovina can only enter the European Union as a civic state, or is Brussels really rooting for the 'Serbian world' and a third entity!