President of the Association of Citizens “Why not” (UG “Zasto ne”) and civil society activist Darko Brkan said in a statement for FENA that the result of yesterday’s meeting of BiH political leaders and the European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule in Brussels went as expected, because, as Brkan believes, nothing has changed since all previous discussions and meetings.
“What is disturbing, is the fact that in this round of talks it has become quite normal that the parties are openly saying that this is a process for addressing relationships among the constituent peoples, rather than addressing issues of discrimination and the position of the “Others”” said Brkan, adding that at the same time, representatives of the European Union has never responded to these statements.
He reminded that this can be resolved quickly, because three amendment proposals have been submitted to the BiH Parliamentary Assembly and they all present solutions for the implementation of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the Sedjić-Finci case. At least one of these propositions can easily get the required majority of votes.
“As a result we have the suspension of EU funds and potential further sanctions, but the bigger problem is, that in the framework of this process, there was a confirmation that the EU delegation could be discussing issues with informal power centers, rather than with state institutions”, believes Brkan.
Commenting on the information that the European Commission could offer a suggestion for a solution to this issue, he expressed hope that it would be a proposal to deal with the ECHR’s decision aiming at abolition of discrimination, rather than at further strengthening of the position of the constituent peoples and deepening discrimination.
The EC has launched the process of suspending more than 50 percent of IPA funds for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is almost 47 million Euro after yesterday’s failure of political leaders from Bosnia to find a solution for the implementation of the Sejdić-Finci decision.
