Borrell: Republika Srpska Actions Jeopardizing B-H Sovereignty  

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell (Beta/Milos Miskov)

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has responded to a letter sent by the Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina (B-H) Presidency, Milorad Dodik, saying that the EU’s main goal is “irreversible progress” of B-H to EU membership and demanding full return of Republika Srpska (RS) representatives to joint institutions in B-H.

“Unfortunately, the recent actions of the Entity of RS are at odds with the B-H Constitution and have jeopardized B-H as a single and sovereign state with a future in the EU,” Borrell wrote in his response letter, according to Sarajevo media reports in the evening on March 14.

Sarajevo daily Avaz has published a facsimile of Borrell’s letter, according to which the High Representative thanks Dodik on his Feb. 18 letter, which was sent after their phone talk on Feb. 10, and which “confirms firm commitment of B-H to its EU future.”

In his letter to Dodik, Borrell said that RS “has been pushing backward 26 years of reforms, particularly with the recent adoption of laws establishing parallel (entity) institutions in the fields of the judiciary and drugs.” Borrell also said that the B-H Constitution did not envisage a procedure for the return of entity competences transferred to the state level, stressing that such procedure could in no case exclude state institutions.

“Unilateral steps toward annulling the transfer agreements are illegal and contradict the B-H constitutional order,” Borrel said. He added that the EU was ready “to facilitate an extensive and comprehensive dialogue once RS representatives return to state institutions and ensure their full functioning.”