The EU As State Builder in the Process of European Integration

The EU as state builder in the process of European integration - the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina Srdjan Blagovcanin a unija i Bosna I Hercegovina: Građenje države kroz proces evropskih integracija Evropsk 2016 Sarajevo www.fes.ba Srđan Blagovčanin Srdjan Blagovcanin The EU as state builder in the process of European integration - the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, 2016 The name of publication: The EU as state builder in the process of European integration - the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina Publisher: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Author: Srdjan Blagovcanin Reviewer: Radomir Neskovic For publisher: Michael Weichert Proofreading: Mirjana Janjetovic DTP: Aleksandar Anicic Print: Amosgraf Sarajevo Circulation: 300 copies All rights reserved by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung BiH. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not constitute an explicit views and opinions of the publisher. Friedrich- Ebert-Stiftung does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented in this publication. Commercial use of release is not permitted without the written consent of the Foundation. Srdjan Blagovcanin The EU as state builder in the process of European integration - the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, 2016 Table of contents 1. Introduction …………………………………………………………..………………………. 9 2. Methodological considerations ……………………………………..……..………. 10 3. Theoretical consideration ………………………………………………………..….… 13 4. EU enlargement in the Balkans – context, tools and policies ……..… 24 5. From international to EU-driven state building ………………..………….. 27 5.1 International authoritarian state building ………………….……. 28 5.2 Mixed phase or Interim phase of both authoritarian and membership state building ……………………………………………….….. 32 5.3 EU-driven membership state building …………………….………. 40 5.4 How to reform the reformers or the EU as a state builder in denial …………………………………………………………………………….… 56 6. EU actors …………………………………………………………………………………….… 59 7. Bosnia and Herzegovina – local actors and incentives for reforms . 66 8. The record of state building ………..………………………………………….…….. 73 8.1 The legislature and the executive ……………………………….……. 78 8.2 The judiciary ……………………………………………………………..……. 80 8.3 Public administration reform (state owned companies) … 83 8.4 Police and law enforcement agencies …………………..…………. 87 8.5 Media ………………………………………………………………………………. 89 9. General conclusions ………………………………………………………………………. 92 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………….….. 99 Abbreviations and Acronyms BiH – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian and Herzegovinian CEC – Central Election Commission CEE – Central and East European countries CFSP - Common Foreign and Security Policy CoE – Council of Europe CoM – Council of Ministers CRA – Communications Regulatory Agency CRPC - Commission for Real Property Claims of Displaced Persons and Refugees DPA – Dayton Peace Accords EC – European Commission ECHR – European Court of Human Rights ESDP - European Security and Defense Policy EU – European Union EUI – European University Institute EUPM – European Union Police Mission EUSR – European Union Special Representative FBiH – Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina FRIDE - Foundation for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue GDP – Gross Domestic Product HoD – Head of Delegation HDZ – Croatian Democratic Union HJPC – High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council ICISS - International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty report IMC - International Media Commission IMF – International Monetary Fund IPA – Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance IPTF – International Police Task Force ITA – Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH JHA - The Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) acquis (from the framework for cooperation set out in Title VI (Article K) of the Treaty on European Union NATO – Northern Atlantic Treaty Organisation NGO – Non-governmental organisation OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OHR – Office of the High Representative OSA/OBA – Intelligence-Security Agency OSCE – Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe PA BiH – Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina PARCO - Public Administration Reform Co-ordinator’s Office PIC – Peace Implementation Council PIC SB – Peace Implementation Council Steering Board RS – Republika Srpska SAA – Stability and Association Agreement SAP – Stability and Association Process SBiH – Haris Silajdžić’s “Party for BiH” SDA – Party of Democratic Action SDP BiH – Social Democratic Party of BiH SIPA – State Investigation and Protection Agency SNSD – Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (RS) UN – United Nations WB – Western Balkans “When dealing with the Balkans, the devil is usually not in the details but in the failure to confront the obvious” Edward P. Joseph Key words: Bosnia and Herzegovina, European Integration; State building, institutional building, Europeanization, EU conditionality. The EU as state builder in the process of European integration - the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina 1. Introduction After the European Union (EU) failed to prevent the disaster in the Balkans in the 1990s, the year 2000 heralded a new beginning in the EU’s relations with the Western Balkans (WB). At the turn of the century, the EU entered a new phase in its relations with the WB by taking a leading role in the stabilisation of the situation in the region. A turning point occurred when the EU offered the Balkan countries the prospect of becoming full members of the EU provided that they meet certain conditions. After the Central and East European (CEE) countries’ successful “return to Europe”, integration has become the “only game in town” for the countries of the WB. The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), however, remains a particular challenge for the EU. Following the war and the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA), the country was placed under international civil and military administration. For the first time in its history the EU was involved, together with the wider international community, in a state-building process using authoritarian means. The authoritarian state-building process was closely linked with the Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP). While the use of authoritarian state-building instruments helped establish key institutions needed for elementary functioning of the state, after the abandonment of such a model, reforms came to a halt, jeopardising everything that had been achieved in the state-building process. Within the SAP, conditionality remains the EU’s key approach used in the accession process. While other countries in the region have made substantial progress in the accession process, BiH remains increasingly isolated, having failed to fulfil the requirements for submitting their application. 9 Srdjan Blagovcanin 2. Methodological considerations Since the year 2000, the EU has increasingly gained influence over the reform process in BiH. The EU policy toward BiH is framed within the SAP. This was designed to prepare the countries of the WB for membership in the EU. However, unlike other enlargement rounds before, what can be observed in BiH is a more intrusive involvement of the EU in state-building exercises. The EU also has been present in BiH within the framework of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). The central research question of the study is how effective the EU has been with regard to state-building in post-conflict BiH in the process of integration into the EU. Essentially, this question entails investigating both theories concerned with European integration as well as the growing literature devoted to state building. The study examines the policies and tools deployed by the EU in the process of state-building in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to understand the transformative power of the EU. As Rupnik describes it – “Until now the EU’s transformative power has proved effective in integrating established states; now it is confronted with the challenge of integrating contested states.”1 In order to address that challenge the study considers the specificities of BiH in terms of the creation of the state, foreign presence and contested sovereignty. The study particularly devotes attention to the process of institution building as pivotal in the process of state-building and seeks to examine how local actors respond to the EU incentives policies. The basic hypothesis of the study is that the EU approach has been ineffective due to different external and internal factors that affect the process of state building and integration into the EU and that the EU 1 James Rupnik, ‘The Balkans as European Question’, in the ‘The Western Balkans and The EU: “The Hour of Europe”’, James Rupnik (ed), (Chaillot Papers, June 2011), p.24 10 The EU as state builder in the process of European integration - the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot simply replicate policies successfully applied in CEE countries. Differences in relation to the accession of CEE countries are multiple. The primary difference lies in the initial assumptions of the accession process. Although the CEE countries too were undergoing a comprehensive social and economic transformation, they still had a stable and well-established institutional framework. That framework was subsequently only upgraded to respond to the changing social and economic relations, whereas in BiH the national and institutional structures had to be built from the ground up. Also, the CEE countries embarked on the accession process as a result of a broad

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