News

CoE Resolution Cautiously Welcomes Bosnia’s Progress

January 25, 201811:29
The latest Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe resolution on Bosnia welcomes some progress – but calls attention to familiar problems over the country's election law, the city of Mostar and war crimes. 
Council of Europe Palais de l’Europe Photo: Council of Europe/Wikimedia Commons

A Council of Europe resolution on Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday welcomed Bosnia’s progress in implementing the Reform Program for the period from 2015 to 2018, and its determination to continue with institutional and socio-economic reforms.

The resolution hailed some breakthroughs, such as the Reform Agenda agreement, the organization of the census, and Bosnia’s application to join the European Union.

It voices concern, however, about the lack of results on processing war crimes and the missing people’s process.

It urges Bosnia’s political actors to adopt amendments to the constitution and the election law no later than six months before the general election due in October.

The Bosnia Constitutional Court decision, on December 1, 2016, on the composition of the House of Peoples, must be urgently carried out before the elections in October, it said.

It regreted also that the city of Mostar remains denied of its democratic right to choose a local government [owing to disputes between its main Bosniak and Croat parties], and urges swift implementation of the Constitutional Court judgment on Mostar.

It expresses regret, generally, also over the non-implementation of a large number of decisions of the Constitutional Court as well as verdict of the European Court of Human Rights, in the Sejdic-Finci case.

The resulution warns that Bosnia will not be seen as a candidate for EU membership until the right conditions are established and the country’s electoral law is reformed.