{"id":380936,"date":"2024-07-26T11:59:17","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T09:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/07\/26\/bosnia-agenda-riforme-piano-crescita-ue\/"},"modified":"2024-08-02T13:14:16","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T11:14:16","slug":"bosnia-reform-agenda-eu-growth-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/07\/26\/bosnia-reform-agenda-eu-growth-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Bosnia fails to agree on the Reform Agenda. EU Growth Plan funds at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ursula<\/a>
From left: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Bosnia and Herzegovina Council of Ministers President\u00a0Borjana Kri\u0161to in Sarajevo (Nov. 1, 2023)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brussels – The green light<\/a> of the European Council for\u00a0the start of accession negotiations is not enough. Bosnia and Herzegovina remains in institutional chaos,<\/strong> which now puts at risk – as has long been feared – the EU funds allocated by the new Western Balkans Plan that links economic growth with domestic reforms. “Bosnia and Herzegovina has not yet submitted a final reform agenda<\/strong> to the European Commission.\u00a0It is therefore very likely that it will not receive, already after the summer, the first unconditional installment of pre-financing worth 7 percent,” the EU delegation in Sarajevo disclosed in a post<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0X: “This is a missed opportunity for substantial early funding<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

This danger has been clear since last fall, when the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, on her Bosnian leg of the customary annual trip to the Western Balkans, made it clear that failure to implement crucial\u00a0reforms would mean that “resources will be redistributed to other countries that are capable of doing so<\/strong>.” With the Growth Plan\u00a0approved in record time<\/a> by the EU co-legislators earlier this year, the EU executive confirmed<\/a> two months ago that without meeting reform standards, the EU may decide to cut funds. “The first installment of the Growth Plan can only be disbursed after the Reform Agenda has been submitted and formally approved<\/strong> by the European Commission and Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the EU delegation in Sarajevo made clear yesterday (July 25), encouraging work “without further delay, so as not to miss this opportunity altogether.” Bosnia and Herzegovina’s share of funding from the Growth Plan is estimated at one billion euros: for now,\u00a0the country misses out on the\u00a0first installment of unconditional pre-financing worth about 70 million euros<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What caused the stalemate was the institutional chaos that emerged in the face of the draft submitted by the Ad Hoc Working Group<\/strong>, despite the EU Commission’s deadline extension\u00a0to reach a last-minute agreement. In what is considered one of the world’s most complicated institutional arrangements – that\u00a0emerged from the 1995 Dayton Accords ending three-and-a-half-years of civil and ethnic war in the country – first,\u00a0the president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik<\/strong>, refused to accept two items (out of 112 on the Agenda) on the appointment of judges to the Central Constitutional Court and the recognition of the Court’s decisions\u00a0Then the representatives of four cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/strong> (Central Bosnia, Tuzla, Zenica-Doboj, and Una-Sana) did not agree to the document, accusing it of prioritizing the institutions of the two entities over state institutions and prioritizing projects in Republika Srpska and Bosnian-Croat majority cantons over Bosnian majority ones.<\/p>\n

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\"Republika<\/a>
Republika Srpska president, Milorad Dodik (credits: Elvis Barukcic \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

“Despite all the efforts and support of the European institutions,\u00a0not everyone has shown a minimum level of political responsibility to direct our activities toward a common European path<\/strong>,” attacked Bosnia and Herzegovina’s President of the Council of Ministers, Borjana Kri\u0161to<\/strong>, in announcing on Wednesday (July 24) the failure of negotiations on the Reform Agenda. In addition to the EU delegation reiterating its readiness to continue to support the Bosnian authorities “if necessary,” the US Embassy in Sarajevo also intervened harshly in defense of the Western Balkans Growth Plan<\/strong>, defining it, in\u00a0a post<\/a> published yesterday,\u00a0“an unprecedented offer by the EU to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Washington’s direct attack is not only on Bosnian Serb President Dodik – “a man who consistently puts his\u00a0interests ahead of those he claims to represent<\/strong>” and who represents “the greatest threat to the European future” of the Balkan country – but also on the main Bosnian-Muslim party, the Democratic Action Party (SDA): “The decision to use the occasion for political grandstanding<\/strong>, instead of working with the other parties to secure approval on the final two outstanding points was unhelpful and irresponsible.”<\/p>\n