Following the October 2018 Bosnia and Herzegovina elections, the country found it difficult to establish a council of ministers due to a political impasse between the leaders of the top parties in parliament.
Why Could They Not Form a Government?
The stumbling block during the negotiations was the issue of the country’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) membership. Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of Bosnia’s presidency and leader of the Serb Alliance of Independent Social Democrats party, is opposed to the country joining NATO. Joining NATO is an unpopular idea among Bosnian Serbs, due to NATO’s bombing of Serbia during the 1990s Balkan wars.
The Agreement
In a meeting hosted by EU delegates on the 5th of August, Bakir Izetbegovic of the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action, Milorad Dodik of the Serb Alliance of Independent Social Democrats and Dragan Covic of the Croatian Democratic Union agreedto form a government.
At a press conference after the meeting, Dodik said: “This agreement provides the conditions for the formation of the central cabinet…within the next 30 days. I think this is an important moment which allows us to move forward.”
More of a shaky compromise than a lasting deal, it still remains unclear whether the country will or will not continue its NATO membership bid. According to Euronews, “… under the agreement, the leaders vowed to “promote relations with NATO without prejudicing a future decision about the membership of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Noting the instability of the agreement, Dodik asked that the agreement be implemented in 30 days to prevent Bosnia from “deep constitutional and political crisis, [stating] that its sovereignty will come into question [if they fail to do so].”
“Unless this document as agreed and signed has been implemented in the next 30 days, the SNSD will block the work of all institutions and nobody will be able to stop that, neither European or any other international institutions,” he stated.
Bosnia is split into two constituents: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, home to Bosnian and Croat population, and the Republic Srpska, home the Serb population. Ethnic tensions among the three groups are not uncommon.
