For the EU, the agreement by the authorities is important, not the substance of the Coordination Mechanism

The balls on all sides seem to have been dropped. Just as the US Ambassador to BiH Maureen Cormack and the British Ambassador Edward Ferguson recently stated, "fruitless quarrels lead nowhere".

Judging by the statement given to the Patria news agency by Zora Stanić, spokesperson for the EU Delegation in BiH, as well as the statements of the leaders of SDA, SNSD, and HDZ BiH, the Coordination Mechanism could soon be adopted.

"Any further step towards the finalization and formalization of the Coordination Mechanism, which is the result of an agreement by domestic authorities, is welcome," Stanić told NAP.

The Council of Ministers of BiH is expected to adopt the Coordination Mechanism, should there be an "agreement on an already reached agreement", at its session on August 17 or 18.

For the president of SDA and the Bosniak member of the Presidency of BiH, Bakir Izetbegović, the Coordination Mechanism is resolved.

"It was said that the Federation of BiH will be represented by the Federation and the cantons. If someone is concerned about the details, we will add the names of the cantons. If this formal request needs to be met, so be it," Izetbegović explained.

The member of the Presidency of BiH representing the Croat people and the president of HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, who immediately expressed dissatisfaction after Izetbegović and Dodik signed the Coordination Mechanism Agreement, says it is very important that during Slovakia's EU presidency, "with whom we have important support, we fulfill two main conditions - the Coordination Mechanism and the adaptation of the SAA".

"Izetbegović, Ivanić, and I talked on Friday (two days before the meeting in Istočno Sarajevo, editor's note) and I clearly stated that the Mechanism cannot be changed by excluding Brčko District and the cantons. Izetbegović had a desperate need to resolve the blockade of the IMF arrangement, which we also discussed. He succeeded in the meeting with Dodik because the Bosniak side conditioned this arrangement on Dodik signing the Mechanism," Čović said.

For Mladen Bosić, president of SDS, all the political noise around the Coordination Mechanism was unnecessary.

"All of us together, two years ago in Brussels, agreed on what the Mechanism should look like, and then, at the request of the Croats, the agreement was expanded to include the cantons, and Dodik participated in all discussions. The Council of Ministers adopted exactly such a Coordination Mechanism.

Dodik, in order to emphasize his importance, then set a condition that the quorum must be related to the presence of the entities. And now, what was previously explained more simply has been adopted. Dodik is doing this because he is not part of the government at the BiH level and wants to show that he is a factor without whom decisions cannot be made," Bosić stated categorically, adding that the most important thing is that they will get the IMF loan.

Dodik's letter to Izetbegović and Čović

The President of Republika Srpska and SNSD, Milorad Dodik, sent a letter to Izetbegović and Čović in which he gave his consent for the remarks of the representatives of the Croat people, i.e., HDZ BiH, to be incorporated into the final version of the Coordination Mechanism.

"If the Croats believe that something else needs to be incorporated into the Coordination Mechanism to include the cantons in decision-making, that should not be a problem. The Coordination Mechanism should and must follow the constitutional structure of BiH, and I see no reason why such remarks should not be accepted and incorporated into its final form," Dodik said.

Ivanić: If it had been done as I suggested, there would have been no problems

For the member of the Presidency of BiH representing the Serb people, Mladen Ivanić, all of this was an unnecessary political fuss in which various egos and political appetites came into play, and then in the final stage, it turns out that no one was disadvantaged, neither in January when the Council of Ministers of BiH adopted the initial version of the Coordination Mechanism, nor now.

"Neither was the Government of Republika Srpska excluded from the Coordination Mechanism in January, nor are the cantons excluded now by the Dodik-Izetbegović agreement. If it had been done as I suggested to Izetbegović and Čović, to sit within the institutions, all of this would have been avoided now," Ivanić points out to Patria.