CVIJANOVIĆ: FEDERAL APPROACH GIVES BiH BETTER PROSPECTS ON ITS EUROPEAN PATH

ZAGREB, DECEMBER 12 /SRNA/ - The Serb member of the Presidency of BiH, Željka Cvijanović, emphasized that a federal approach would give BiH greater chances to move along the European path, and that the EU is increasingly recognizing that certain specific features must be respected.

“The concept of building nation-states is collapsing, and we have heard that most clearly from the United States. I believe this is something that is also being abandoned in Brussels, where there is an awareness that a federal approach might give BiH better prospects on its path toward the EU,” Cvijanović said in Zagreb at the international conference “30 Years After Dayton: Opening the Path to Local Solutions.” She emphasized that BiH is not unique in this regard, as there are EU member states in which competencies are clearly divided, with careful consideration given to identities. Cvijanović stressed that there is a clear awareness in Republika Srpska that it is the domestic institutions that should be the ones adopting laws. "Only the Bosniak political bloc benefits from having foreign judges in the Constitutional Court of BiH and from the OHR, because leading figures of their politics have openly said they cannot give up those instruments. This means that they satisfy their political appetites through something that is an absolute abuse of democracy, the Constitution, and the Dayton Agreement," Cvijanović said. Cvijanović stated that the resistance to the invasive approach of political Sarajevo was the response of the Republika Srpska institutions. "The Bonn powers have brought harm; the High Representatives have done more damage than good, and it is time for BiH to start standing on its own feet rather than relying on someone else. There is no room for megalomaniac approaches. The state does not belong only to the Bosniaks, even if they made up 90 percent of the population. The Constitution clearly states that the country must rest on the principle of equality of peoples regardless of their numbers," Cvijanović said. She emphasized that BiH is not a centralized state but a decentralized one, which was forcibly turned into a centralized state according to the wishes of the Bosniaks, and that model has failed. “There is no political or even ordinary dialogue among the people involved in politics in BiH,” Cvijanović said. She pointed out that the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Council of Ministers, Elmedin Konaković, misused this international conference by presenting false claims, just as he misuses the state, the Constitution, and the Dayton Agreement. "The state is in serious trouble because the Bosniaks increasingly insist that foreigners are good and that they cannot live without the OHR. This means that you value foreigners, the OHR, and foreign judges, but you do not value Serbs and Croats," Cvijanović said. She reiterated that abolishing the Bonn powers is an opportunity for BiH and its peoples to sit down and reach an agreement. "Collective rights in BiH must be protected, but individual rights also exist. We, as responsible politicians, need to find a balance for everyone," Cvijanović concluded.