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INTERVIEW-Bosnia needs strong message from EU - top envoy

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:53 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

* International envoy urges closer EU involvement

* Says will stop Bosnian Serb referendum

By Justyna Pawlak

BRUSSELS, April 29 (Reuters) - The European Union must engage more closely with Bosnia to help the ethnically divided country overcome a deepening political crisis, the region's peace envoy said. Valentin Inzko, an Austrian diplomat overseeing Bosnia, said the EU must view the nation as a test for its new diplomatic corps set up last year to raise the EU's global profile.

"This is really important for Bosnia. The country is split in many ways, but there is unanimous agreement that the European Union is the future," Inzko told Reuters in a telephone interview. "I am talking about a stronger focus on Bosnia."

Bosnia is facing the worst political crisis since the 1995 Dayton peace agreement split it mainly along ethnic lines.

Its three ethnic groups have increasingly different views of their future, with Serb and Croat nationalists seeking separate states, and Muslims favouring a united Bosnia.

The rifts have frozen democratic reforms and raised international concerns about Bosnia's integrity, undermining its fragile economy and EU membership aspirations.

Inzko said stronger engagement would help politicians agree on a reform plan needed to put it on a path towards EU entry.

"We are now in a really deep political crisis ... maybe the most serious since the signature of Dayton," said Inzko, who is also the EU's special representative to Sarajevo.

Under the Dayton accord, Bosnia was divided into the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic, each with its own parliament and government and linked by weak central rule.

The Dayton accords also established Inzko's position of high representative, a role with the power to impose laws.

PUSHING THE EU

The Austrian diplomat said he would move to prevent Bosnian Serb separatists holding a referendum to challenge the legality of a national court, the latest of a range of Serb separatist moves in Bosnia. [ID:nLDE73R1ZG]

"There are two possibilities. Either the Serb Republic does it (annuls the vote) or the international community will," he said. "I will have to act."

Inzko also said a March decision by EU governments to threaten separatists in Bosnia with sanctions -- assets freezes and travel restrictions already used in countries such as Libya, Iran and Belarus -- were a step in the right direction.

"We could reach the moment when using them would be necessary," he said.

Recent visits by top EU officials to Sarajevo were helping drive the pro-EU message, he said, adding that Bosnia should be able to apply for EU membership this year. The move is likely to happen only with tacit approval from Brussels even though in theory any country can apply to join the EU.

"Absolutely," he said when asked if Brussels should give Sarajevo the go ahead for membership. "This would start a huge transformation process."

The EU so far appears reluctant. Diplomats in Brussels say the bloc would first want to see constitutional reforms in Bosnia and progress on state aid and national census laws.

EU governments have discussed stepping up the bloc's presence in Bosnia for months, but there is disagreement over how that would tally with the role of the international envoy, which was meant to be phased out over time. (Reporting by Justyna Pawlak; Editing by Maria Golovnina)