The European Union administration began discussions about the status of the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (OHR) about thirty days ago, according to Istraga.ba.
“There are three options on the table: reducing the powers of the OHR, relocating the OHR, and closing the Office of the High Representative,” confirmed several diplomatic sources to Istraga.ba.
According to the same sources, EU officials tasked France with preparing materials that would then be presented to all members of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) for BiH. During the initial discussions, Christian Schmidt was excluded from the entire process. Only after some insistence was Schmidt included in these talks.
“After learning about this plan, the Americans strongly opposed it, which slowed down the discussions. However, the EU, especially the French, do not want to give up,” one source close to the OHR told Istraga.ba.
The discussion about closing the OHR was initiated by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who in April, during a visit to Paris, talked about it with French President Emmanuel Macron. It was then officially announced that Vučić and Macron had agreed to sign a contract for the purchase and delivery of French Rafale fighter jets “within the next two months.”
The day after Vučić’s visit to Paris, the President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik also traveled to France.
After the meeting, Dodik stated that he “talked in Paris with people from various sectors and that there is interest in relations with Republika Srpska, primarily in the areas of economy and culture.”
“Republika Srpska is stable, committed to peace and development. Republika Srpska has no intention of any destabilization that would lead to violence. On the other hand, it intends to maintain its political positions and will not give up on that. The key question was what we see in the European Union?! Here, there is talk that the Balkans is the next hotspot of conflict. I assured them that there are no elements for such a thing, that it is pure propaganda from some Western circles who want to portray it that way,” Dodik told RTRS on April 11 this year.
It was precisely during Vučić’s and Dodik’s meetings with French officials and businessmen that lobbying for the closure of the OHR took place, which later led to the official initiation of discussions about the status of the OHR at the European Union level.
This is not the first time that the French have raised the issue of closing the OHR. In 2010, Wikileaks published a document according to which France requested the closure of the OHR in November 2009, to which the US strongly opposed.
According to the document published at the time, France wanted to see a transfer of powers to a new EU team in November, as well as closer ties to Europe to encourage Bosniaks to continue with the necessary reforms.
“The situation is almost identical now. However, there are also forces in Brussels advocating at least for the reduction of the OHR’s powers,” said a diplomatic source.
For a long time, according to Istraga’s information, there has been a “conflict” between the US and the EU regarding the status of the OHR. Due to differing views on the OHR, relations between US Ambassador to BiH Michael Murphy and EU Ambassador to BiH Johann Sattler have also deteriorated.
Source: BanjaLuka.net
