17/12/2009 Monitoring
Strasbourg, 17.12.2009 – Only urgently-needed Constitutional reforms can unblock the “deadlock” within the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said in a draft report approved in Paris today.
PACE’s Monitoring Committee said “perpetual confrontation and obstructionism” by Entities and parties meant Bosnia and Herzegovina was lagging behind its neighbours in Euro-Atlantic integration and less able to fulfil its Council of Europe commitments.
The report – by Mevlüt Çavusoglu (Turkey, EDG) and Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD) – demanded “meaningful and constructive dialogue” between all domestic stakeholders on concrete proposals to amend the Constitution ahead of the autumn 2010 elections.
The parliamentarians added that, while supporting initiatives by various stakeholders to come to an agreement, fourteen years after Dayton it was high time for “a wide discussion”, involving local stakeholders, the EU and neighbouring countries, on how Bosnia and Herzegovina could face new challenges to its stability.
The committee also strongly condemned statements and actions by politicians at the highest level of Republika Srpska which undermine State institutions and challenge the authority of the High Representative.
PACE is due to debate the report on the afternoon of Tuesday 26 January during its winter plenary session in Strasbourg (25-29 January 2010).