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Europe is reconfiguring its presence in Bosnia. Sanction threats

(B2) After some discussion, the 27 foreign ministers are due today (March 21) to adopt a decision reconfiguring their presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There will therefore be only one person representing the EU in Bosnia: the European Union ambassador. The EU also proposes to "relocate" the representative of the international community (OHR). This thus signals the end of the system put in place after the Dayton agreements. The 27 also threaten to freeze the assets and the movement of people who would threaten the integrity of the country. Regarding the two defense missions deployed in the country, no decision has been formally taken but... their closure is near.

Only one representative for the EU in the country

The post of EU special envoy, currently occupied by the Austrian Valentin Inzko, will be abolished, or rather merged with that of ambassador. No deadline is mentioned for this transformation. But it could take place in the following months. It will be recalled that the post of EU Ambassador - which should have been filled in a previous rotation of ambassadors - remained vacant. The person approached, the Slovak Miroslav Lajcak, having finally been as director of the Balkans-Russia department in the diplomatic service (1).

A representative of the international community (OHR) "offshore"

Established after the Dayton agreements, this position – currently merged with the EU special envoy – must also be reconfigured, believes the European Union. Everything must be studied, including a possible "relocation of the OHR". This solution has the advantage of leaving only one person in the region, representing the European Union. It is also a skilful compromise between the actual closure demanded by certain partners (Russia), refused by others (Turkey). And so lets a deadlocked situation?

The threat of sanctions

Faced with the blocking of Bosnian institutions (no central government) and various measures which have still not been taken (conformity of the Constitution with the European Convention on Human Rights, law on State aid, etc.), the decided to wave the stick. It thus adopted a decision prohibiting residence and visas for “ natural and legal persons whose activities:

1) undermine the sovereignty, territorial integrity, constitutional order and international personality of Bosnia and Herzegovina,

2) seriously jeopardize the security situation

or 3) adversely affect the application of the general framework agreement for peace and its annexes”.

A list that remains blank

But the list annexed to the decision remains blank. No one is listed yet. The desired effect is to have a possible threat against reluctant people. All it takes now is a simple decision (which can be made very quickly) for the threat to be carried out and for Bosnians to be banned from visas and their assets frozen.

Ongoing ESDP missions

No formal decision has been taken on the future of the two PeSDC missions on the spot: Eufor Althea (military) and EUPM (Police). We know that the Eufor Althea mission has already been reconfigured into a non-executive, technical mission of a much smaller format (2). While the EUPM mission reduced the airfoil (3). All 27 agree"to keep these missions under regular review, based on the situation on the ground, with a view to assessing the EU's future engagement in the region". The two missions have an end for the end of the year. It is obvious that with the objective of entry of Bosnia and Herzegovina into a process of accession to the EU, these "defense" missions have less their raison d'être. The decision to close could thus be taken after the end of the Hungarian presidency, by the summer.

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Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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