hr flag go to the original language article
This article has been translated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The news agency is not responsible for the content of the translated article. The original was published by HINA.

Sattler regrets the failure of electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina

by AI | 27.Aug 2024 | Europe in brief AI

The failure to reach an agreement on electoral reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the biggest failure of the special envoy to BiH, who is ending his five-year mandate in that country.

Sarajevo, May 20, 2022. The President of the European Council Charles Michel and the EU Ambassador and Special Envoy to Bosnia and Herzegovina Johann Sattler at a meeting with the three-member Presidency of BiH. Photo: EPA/FEHIM DEMIR

SARAJEVO – The head of the European Union Delegation in BiH Johann Sattler said, at the end of his five-year term, that he considers the biggest failure to be the lack of agreement on electoral reform in that country during that period.

Sattler is leaving office at the end of this month and in an interview with Banja Luka’s “Nezavisne novine” published on Monday, he said that he personally spent a lot of energy and time trying to reach an agreement but the result was lacking.

“Do not forget that (election legislation) BiH is not aligned with the European Charter of Human Rights. And that’s no small matter, there are judgments that must be implemented. We were close to a solution, but there wasn’t enough political courage and wisdom for the final step. I wish I could have finished that,” said Sattler.

The EU delegation in BiH, in cooperation with the U.S. administration, was directly involved in attempts to reach an agreement among political parties in BiH on how to implement the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which determined discrimination against citizens of that country in the electoral process based on their ethnic affiliation or place of residence.

There has been no agreement on this so far because the HDZ BiH insisted that the issue of the election of a member of the BiH Presidency from the ranks of Croats be resolved in that package, but all proposed solutions were rejected by the Bosniak side with the explanation that they only introduced new forms of discrimination.

The next year could be crucial for new attempts at an agreement because new general elections in BiH will be held in 2026, and before that, the problem created by the election of Željko Komšić as a member of the BiH Presidency from the ranks of Croats with Bosniak votes is expected to be resolved.

Sattler says that he considers the second biggest failure of his term to be the lack of real reconciliation in BiH or the acknowledgement of the suffering of all war victims from 1992 to 1995.

“I truly hoped we could achieve more,” he said. (August 26, 2024)