Croatian MPs Urge EU to Discuss Bosnia Election 'Problem'

Eleven Croatian MEPs have complained in a joint letter to the European Parliament that the newly-elected Bosnian Croat member of Bosnia's state tripartite presidency was mostly elected by Bosniak votes.

"Therefore, the Croatian members of the EP [European Parliament] call for vigilance and attention to how these developments might affect the stability of Bosnia and the wider region, bilateral relations with Croatia, regional cooperation and [Bosnia's] EU ambitions," they said in the letter to the presidents of the European Parliament, Commission and Council, as well as the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn.

The MEPs asked for Bosnia's recent elections to be discussed at the next European Commission Foreign Affairs Council meeting.

Komsic will formally represent Bosnia and Herzegovina's Croats on the Bosnian presidency, which has three seats that are designated for a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb.

But many Croats claim Komsic owes his victory to votes from the country's much larger Bosniak community, and therefore will not genuinely represent the Bosnian Croat community on the presidency.

The Croatian MEPs also expressed their concern that the outcome of the elections does not contribute to the functionality of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a "state of three equal constituent peoples and Others" - a reference to the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the 1992-95, and which defines the country's 'constituent peoples' as Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs.

Following October's election, the three members of the collective head of state will be Milorad Dodik, the outgoing president of Bosnia's mainly Serbian entity, Republika Srpska and head of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats; Sefik...

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