Bosnian Serb Deputies Mull EU Declaration

The President of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, will sign Bosnia's EU declaration, but only once it is debated by the entity assembly, scheduled for Wednesday, officials said.

According to the new EU initiative for Bosnia, launched at the end of 2014, once the declaration is adopted by Bosnia's state parliament and signed by leaders of all 14 parties represented in it, the EU will activate Bosnia's Stabilization and Association Agreement, thus moving the country ahead in the EU accession process.

After Bosnia's tripartite presidency drafted the declaration last December, Dodik quickly rejected it. The presidency prepared a second draft in mid-January, which Dodik - under pressure from German and UK officials - tentatively accepted on condition that the entity assembly debate it first.

The main board of Dodik's party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, met on Tuesday to discuss the disputed declaration.

Some EU officials and European diplomats are concerned that Dodik is using the debate over the declaration to play political games with the opposition bloc of Bosnian Serb parties and two main Bosniak parties, which have made a coalition to form a state government in Bosnia without the SNSD.

"Everything that Dodik is doing now seems to be aimed at ensuring that the SNSD is accepted into the state coalition. If that fails, he seems determined to further weaken the state and switch the main decision-making process to the entities," a Western diplomat told Balkan Insight.

The debate in the Republika Srpska assembly on the EU declaration is expected to start with Dodik's introductory speech. The chair of the Bosnian Presidency, Mladen Ivanic, a Serb from the...