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A joint EU-US mediation effort aimed at ending years of political deadlock in Bosnia-Herzegovina ended on Wednesday (21 October) with no agreement on giving the central government a stronger role over the semi-independent Serbian and Muslim-Croat entities.

The talks were spearheaded by Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, who used to be the first international high representative in Bosnia after the 1992-1995 war and is now chairing the EU presidency.

Despite wanting to see the office's powers downgraded, Mr Dodik strongly rejected the legislative package put forward by the EU-US mediators, saying it risked diluting the power of Republika Srpska. In the past years, he had repeatedly called for a referendum on separating from the Bosnian federation.

As for the Bosniaks and Croats, they rejected the proposals for not going far enough in strengthening the state institutions.

Under the 1995 Dayton peace accords, two separate entities were created - the Bosnian-Croat federation and Republika Srpska - linked by a common parliament, a three-member presidency and a council of ministers. However, the division of powers remains unclear, especially with the office of the international representative in place, and each side interprets it the way it suits best its own interests.

Leaders of Bosnia's divided communities are meeting to try to end years of political stalemate and reduce the danger of renewed conflict.

European Union and United States representatives are mediating the talks in Sarajevo.

The aim is to bring in constitutional reform and prepare Bosnia for eventual EU and NATO membership.

But the Bosnian Serbs strongly oppose any moves that would jeopardise their desire for more autonomy.

The high representative in Bosnia is an international figure with considerable domestic power.

The current incumbent, Valentin Inzko, has described the situation in the country as serious.

"Bosnia is in a state of paralysis," he told the BBC.

"Things are not moving at the moment. And I deeply regret all this nationalist rhetoric. It's not helpful, it's destructive and many, many wars have started with bad rhetoric. So we should really avoid it."

EU commissioner Olli Rehn, in charge of enlargement, said the Macedonian government should see the move as "very strong encouragement" to "finally settle the name issue," however. The reference concerns an 18-year old dispute between Macedonia and neighbouring Greece about the use of the name Macedonia.

Croatia, hoping to join the EU in 2011, is "nearing the finishing line" after years of negotiations, said Mr Rehn, but needs to further tackle corruption and organised crime "before negotiations can be concluded."

The commission report urges Turkey to do more to ensure freedom of expression and freedom of religion as well as bolster the rights of women and trade unions.

Ankara has been lagging far behind Zagreb in its EU progress in part due to poor relations with EU member Cyprus, with whom it still has to fully implement a customs agreement. Progress is also slow due to a lack of enthusiasm on the part of several member states for Turkish membership and the pace of Turkish domestic reform.

Of the remaining five entities - Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo - that want to join the EU, Mr Rehn had the most to say about Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The war-torn country was recently given an ultimatum by the EU and the US to sort out internal problems between Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs by 20 October.

Defining the country as of "paramount importance for the region and for the European Union," Mr Rehn said that Bosnia and Herzegovina could only consider an application for EU membership once it "can stand on its own two feet."

"No quasi-protectorate can join the EU," he said, spelling out that the Office of High Representative would have to be closed down first. The post was created as part of the peace deal that ended the 1992-1995 war in the country, and can only be closed after a positive international assessment.

Meanwhile, the Serbian government, which is being pushed to arrest two war crimes suspects from the 1990s, was praised for being "stable" and "demonstrating" a high degree of consensus on EU integration as a strategic priority."

But even as the EU tries to bind all of the countries of the western Balkans and Turkey ever more closely through political and economic ties and the promise of eventual membership, there are continuous doubts about whether it has the political appetite to go through with another large round of expansion.

Apart from Croatia, strongly supported by Germany and where EU membership is virtually assured, internal EU question marks remain over the rest.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — European and U.S. officials met with Bosnian leaders on Friday to discuss ways of overcoming a stalemate that has kept the nation behind others seeking to join NATO and the 27-nation European Union.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg; Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt; and Olli Rehn, the EU's enlargement commissioner, said they will return on Oct. 20 to see how much local leaders have coordinated their positions.

The “European perspective” is key concept for integrating western Balkans into EU. The main carrot for ordinary people during this millennium has been visa-free travel after some 17 years of isolation. On 15^th July 2009, the European Commission submitted its proposal on visa-free travel for citizens of Western Balkans countries. After a non-binding opinion of the European parliament on the EC proposal the Council comprising EU interior ministers will take the official vote and at best case free travel to Schengen area could be possible January 2010.

But not for all! European perspective will be true only for some when visa ban still will be existing for some countries or even to some ethnic groups inside a country. Instead of connecting people of western Balkans with western Europe the EC proposal will divide again people according their nationality or location. From EU’s side the reason for division is seen technical related to common standards; from western Balkan’s perspective the reasons for division can be seen political or even related to religion.

Abstract

"The Council [EU member states] expressed concern at the unconstructive political atmosphere and the recent actions challenging the Dayton Peace Agreement. The Council called upon all the political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina to refrain from nationalist rhetoric, and genuinely focus on bringing forward the necessary reform agenda in the general interest of the country and its citizens," EU foreign ministers gathered in Luxembourg said on 15 June.

The ministers also re-affirmed the EU's commitment to a stronger role in Bosnia and said the transition from the Office of the High Representative to a re-inforced EU presence "could be within reach in the months ahead."

Looking at other Western Balkan countries, could we say that the others are advancing, albeit at different speeds, while there is little or no movement from Bosnia? 

I wouldn't say there is no movement forward, but it is very slow, and what is still missing is a consensus among all political forces to keep the political integration away from political infighting. This is what candidate countries in the recent past, including Bulgaria and Romania, have done. There had been an agreement between all political forces to have their differences, but to agree on European integration. This has not happened yet in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Despite its many internal problems, Bosnia and Herzegovina could join the EU by 2015, the country's foreign minister has said, adding that he expects Nato accession to materialise even earlier.

"For Bosnia and Herzegovina it will take at least four, five years to get there [achieve EU membership] …If it's not 2013-2014, maybe 2015," Bosnian foreign minister Sven Alkalaj told a group of journalists in Sarajevo on Thursday (23 April).

Bosnia's foreign minister remained optimistic, however, stressing that Sarajevo hopes to file its application for EU membership this autumn.

"It will very much depend on us and when we are ready to join the EU. I think there won't be a reason for any further disturbances," Mr Alkalaj said.

According to him, Bosnia's membership of Nato is even closer in time than that of the EU, as "the path to Nato is very much advanced."

Take Bosnia-Herzegovina, where EU foreign ministers today named Valentin Inzko, a high-ranking Austrian diplomat, as the bloc’s new Special Representative. Inzko will wear two hats - he was named the world’s High Representative for Bosnia last week. But it will be something of a miracle if he makes any progress towards bringing the Bosnian state off the international life support machine on which it has depended since the end of the 1992-95 civil war.

Insofar as the EU has any idea what to do, it seems to believe that the mutual suspicions that poison relations between Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Serbs (and, to some extent, both communities’ relations with Bosnian Croats) will gradually disappear under the lure of eventual EU membership for the country. But as an excellent new report by the International Crisis Group points out, Bosnia is quite unlike the other former communist states to which the EU has - often successfully - applied this soothing strategy.

It appeared to be almost a done deal, and the only remaining questions were around technicalities – how and when that would be done. 

Then Dodik met Stuart Jones, the deputy US Assistant Secretary in charge of the Balkans, and out from the meeting stepped a seemingly different man. The “new” Dodik stressed that the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be changed only through regular parliamentary procedures and that there are no “adventurers” in Republika Srpska who would attempt anything irrationally. 

In the situation where divisions within European countries and the weakening of their military presence in the Balkans has effectively deprived the OHR of its governing s powers, Jones proved once again that only the Americans have the political clout to halt what until only yesterday appeared to be Bosnia’s inevitable stumble into the abyss.

Yet, knowing Bosnia’s decayed political scene, politicians’ radical rhetoric will surely return unless both the US and EU follow up on whatever Jones said to Dodik and the other political leaders he met with during his stay in Bosnia. 

EU member states have begun talks on who could be the next Special Representative of the bloc in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with five countries having declared official candidates for the job.

The UK, Greece, Estonia, Austria and Italy had put forward potential candidates by Monday (9 February), diplomatic sources told EUobserver, not excluding the possibility of more candidates emerging in the next days.

Once member states complete the list of candidates to replace him, it is to be submitted to EU high representative Javier Solana who is to make a final proposal to the Political and Security Committee (PSC) – a key EU foreign policy body.

The final candidate will then be endorsed by EU member states.

he position of the most powerful person in Bosnia and Herzegovina will change its occupier for the sixth time in the history of this top international office.

The current High Representative of the international community, who is also the EU's Special Representative, will step down from the post as soon as his successor will be named. Miroslav Lajcak, an experienced Slovak diplomat, who has since July 2007 actively participated in the political developments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was appointed Slovak Foreign Minister two weeks ago and the unexpected announcement of his resignation was published by the end January. What does it mean for Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Should the agreement receive parliamentary support, then the division would be sealed. The three parties – SNSD for the Serbs, SDA for the Muslim Bosnians and HDZ BiH for the Croats - do not have a majority and need the support of other political players. 

The Banja Luka agreement was signed only days after the departure of Miroslav Lajčák, the high representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who became Slovakia's foreign minister. 

It is still unclear if the position of high representative of the international community in the Balkan country will be maintained. Le Monde writes that once again, the international community appears to have no coherent strategy for Bosnia and Herzegovina.