Christian Jennings: EU could help Bosnia realise its potential

THERE’S a bumper sticker you can see in Bosnia, in which the gold stars and blue background of the European Union flag surround the words in Bosnian that say: “I want Bosnia in the EU.”

But this month marks a year since Bosnia-Herzegovina has been without a functioning central government, following general elections held on 3 October, 2010. And the EU’s annual progress report on Bosnia and Herzegovina says the overall pace of reforms has been very limited, and Bosnia is lagging behind on the road to European Union accession.

So, in this country of nearly four million people – 16 years after a four-year war left 100,000 people dead and a million displaced, and after which the United States-negotiated Dayton Accords peace deal split the country into two autonomous, ethnically-based regions – when it comes to politics, economics and simple movement forward, is the glass half-full or half-empty?

“Joining the EU will secure Bosnia and Herzegovina’s future as a single, sovereign state with a plural society and political system,” says Britain’s Ambassador in Sarajevo, Nigel Casey.

“To achieve that goal, Bosnia’s political leaders will need to move on from backward-looking arguments and focus in earnest on the practical requirements for EU accession.”

“Joining the EU would enable us to access EU funds and markets,” says Zinaida Ilaria, a pioneering Bosnian businesswoman who runs Z PR, one of the leading publicity and communications specialists.

Bosnia signed an EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in 2008. It is unlikely to join the EU before 2014 or 2015.

The primary obstacle to the reforms needed for Bosnia to join is the decentralised country created by Dayton: the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb republic known as Republika Srpska. Central government is weak, while leaders from the two regions are never slow in ratcheting up political antagonism.

The current president of the Bosniak-Croat Federation, Bakir Izetbegovic, the son of the late president Alija Izetbegovic, said Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik was “largely responsible for the limbo that Bosnia finds itself in”.

Mr Dodik is blocking the appointment of ethnic-Croatian and Serbian politicians from multi-ethnic parties. Members of Mr Dodik’s Alliance of Independent Social Democrats said Bosnian Serbs could leave Bosnia’s joint institutions and never return again.

For those for whom the glass is half-full, the key word in Bosnia is “potential”.

“This is a great country with great people and great potential,” says Omar Musabegovic, 31, who runs Pravda, one of Sarajevo’s leading cocktail bars and restaurants.

“Given what they have been through, people here are good, and what we should be concentrating on is selling and marketing what we have best here, tourism, the outdoors, wonderful fresh organic food, and keep the money and investments here. ”

“Bosnia and Herzegovina is a small country, but it is rich in natural beauty and has huge potential for tourism, especially for those who love the outdoors,” says Mr Casey.

“It is host to a series of world-class cultural events, most notably the Sarajevo Film Festival. And its Muslim community provides living proof that Islam is fully compatible with a modern European identity.”