ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 38, No. 1 (BH)

March 2021

Bosnia-Herzegovina political briefing: The role of High Representative and European Union’s Special Representative for Zvonimir Stopić

1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11.

+36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin

Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01

The role of High Representative and European Union’s Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina

In this briefing we will be taking a closer look into the important role of the High Representative and European Union’s Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, as this year will occur the first change of the head of this position after 12 years. The current head officer Valentin Inzko will be replaced by a new candidate, most probably Christian Schmidt. After an overview of the general history and function of the Office of the High Representative, important due to its deep influence on the political structures of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we will take a brief look at the current High Representative head officer Inzko and the new candidate Schmidt.

Office of the High Representative (OHR) – function and history The Office of the High Representative is an international institution with a status of diplomatic mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, established in accordance to the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Peace Agreement, signed on December 14th, 1995. The OHR, as it is explained in Annex 10 of the agreement, has jurisdiction over overseeing implementation and “final interpretation” of civilian aspects of the Peace Agreement regarding the ending the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As it is stated on their official website, the role of the High Representative is to work with both the people and institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and with the international community to ensure that Bosnia and Herzegovina evolves into a peaceful and viable democracy while being on the course for integration in Euro-Atlantic institutions. The OHR is working towards the point at which Bosnia and Herzegovina will be able to take full responsibility for its own affairs. The institution itself is financed by the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), with a budget over € 5.3 million in 2020 / 21, which is sponsored by the European Union (54 %), the United States of America (22 %), Japan (10 %), Russia (4 %), Canada (3.03 %), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (2.5 %), and others (5.47 %). On the account of the conclusions given at the Conference for implementation of peace held in Bonn in December 1997, the OHR was granted authority to put forward and change laws and the constitution, as well as replace politicians and other administrative officers. For instance, after there was no agreement between the local politicians, the OHR interfered and decided upon the cases of the national flag and anthem, citizenship laws, Council of Ministers law, the state

1 government, country’s election law and the city of Mostar’s statuary. Furthermore, the OHR annulled some of the decisions made by the Central election committee after elections, replaced two members of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidentship, replaced several state and local parliament representatives and had banned them of all other political activities after it established that their actions were in the breach of the Dayton peace agreement and local laws. However, most of these bans and decisions were later suspended. Overall, in the period from 1997 to 2011 the OHR implemented almost 900 different decisions based upon the Bonn agreement. When it comes to the position of relevant international actors, Great Britain and the United States have been openly supportive of the OHR and its instruments of power, while Russia is against it, demanding that the institution closes because it makes Bosnia and Herzegovina a protectorate and not a sovereign country.

Peace Implementation Council (PIC)

The OHR cannot make any decisions if not agreed upon by the state members of the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council. The PIC was established just a week prior to the signing of the and it includes 55 states and different international organizations like the International Monetary Fund, the Council of Europe or the Red Cross International Committee. Members of the Steering Board of the PIC are United States, Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, the Presidency of the European Union, European Commission and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation represented by Turkey. China was a member as well until it withdrew in May 2000. The Board resides twice a year, issues a joint statement and provides the OHR political guidelines. The main OHR officer is appointed by the PIC Steering Board and confirmed by the Security Council of the . This election usually becomes a compromise made between Russia and the Western countries led by the United States. So far, there have been seven High Representative officers appointed on the duty, all of them European diplomats. All of the appointed Principal deputies were diplomats coming from the United States. The head of the OHR is obliged to submit two reports yearly before the Security Council of the United Nations.

Five political goals and the conflicts about the OHR In February 2008 at a meeting in Brussels, the Steering Board of the PIC established five major goals that need to be achieved before the OHR can be closed, but no major leaps forward have been made since. The first goal is agreeable distribution of property between the state of

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Bosnia and Herzegovina and other levels of government in the country. This has not been achieved as political representatives of Republika Srpska find that the property belongs solely to the entities, and not to the state. The second goal is finding an agreement on military property, which is also a continuing dispute between the Serbian and Bosniak representatives. This goal is also a condition for the membership of Bosnia and Herzegovina in NATO. The third goal is reaching a final agreement on the status of the Brčko district, which is neither part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina or Republika Srpska, but has a specific and complicated status of “condominium”. The fourth goal is the fiscal sustainability and the fifth the revival of the rule of the law, which includes a joint state strategy on war crimes, law on foreign nationals and asylum and the state strategy for the reform of the judicial sector. Although none of the above-mentioned goals have been reached, there have been pressures to close the OHR by Russia, by the political representatives of Republika Srpska and recently even by some political parties in Croatia. This is opposed by the Western countries’ representatives in PIC as well as Bosniak and civil parties which endorse the OHR to be more politically engaged, and use its powers like it did in the past.

Current head of OHR Valentin Inzko and the new candidate Christian Schmidt

Currently, the OHR is presided by the seventh head officer, Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko. He was appointed in 2009, holding the position for 12 years now. During his mandate he was much more reluctant to use the powers granted to him by the Bonn agreement than his predecessors. This is due to, in his opinion, “disagreement in the international community” about the OHR’s role in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As Inzko believes, the time for such severe outside interference has passed and the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina should take more responsibility over the political circumstances in the country onto themselves. It is also important to add that the official process of closing of the OHR had started just a year before Inzko’s appointment. Inzko is most known for two cases, one which occurred at the very start of his mandate and the other occurring at the end. In 2009 Inzko used his powers to sack two high-ranking police officials: a Bosniak police commissioner who was accused of threatening international officials involved in an investigation concerning himself, and a Serbian state agency official accused of ordering the surveillance of Inzko’s staff. In 2020, Inzko largely contributed to the removal of a plaque honoring convicted war criminal Radovan Karadžić by directly threatening with European Union sanctions. The new candidate, Christian Schmidt, was confirmed by the Germany Federal Government in January this year. He is a member of the Christian-socialist Union (CSU) since 1976. In the past, since 1990,

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Schmidt has been a German Federal Parliament (Bundestag) member, then was a Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defence (2005 – 2013) and a German Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture (2014 – 2018). Schmidt currently holds a representative position in the German Federal Parliament and is engaged in foreign policy issues, serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Sub-Committee on the United Nations.

Conclusion

The Office of High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been established by an annex to the Dayton peace agreement in 1995 and ever since has been a relevant political factor in the country, with powers reaching deep inside the country’s political structures. The OHR is controlled by the Peace Implementation Council that gathers 55 countries and is headed by a board, influenced the most by representatives of the main European Union countries and institutions, the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and Turkey. The OHR had in the past made many significant changes in the political everyday of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but since 2008, when the official gradual closing of the institutions had began, the OHR interfered less, insisting that the country’s politicians and citizens should take more responsibility. There have been five major goals set as conditions of abolishment of the OHR, but ever since they were defined, not one of them had been achieved. Later this year the current head of the OHR, Valentin Inzko, will be replaced by a new candidate, most probably Christian Schmidt.

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