Bosnia’s Post-Election Deadlock Stalls Progress Towards NATO

The post-electoral political deadlock in Bosnia in Herzegovina has stalled progress towards NATO membership, as political leaders fail to adopt the country's first Annual National Program, which the Western alliance requires as a condition for activating the Membership Action Plan, MAP.

To adopt an Annual National Program, Bosnia first has to form a state-level government, or Council of Ministers, following the October 2018 elections.

The outgoing Council removed the subject from its agenda of December 2018, the same month that NATO called on Bosnia to submit its annual program.

"It was clear immediately that problems with forming the new Council of Ministers will affect plans to adopt the annual programme," Sarajevo-based military analyst and commentator Edin Subasic told BIRN.

Subasic said political leaders seem more focused on dividing up ministries among the three ethnic groups represented on the Council of Ministers than on resolving the issue of the annual program for NATO.

Bosnian Serb leaders fiercely oppose membership of the Western alliance, partly because of the role NATO played in driving Serbian forces out of Kosovo in the 1990s. They also have close ties to Russia, which opposes NATO expansion.

By contrast, Bosniak and Bosnian Croat politicians support joining NATO as a step towards wider Western integration.

Meanwhile, although the next Chair of the Council should be Bosnian Serb, Bosniak and Bosnian Croat leaders oppose this idea, saying it is impossible to have a prime minister who has an anti-NATO attitude.

Bakir Izetbegovic, leader of the main Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action, said after a meeting with Serb and Croat leaders last week that it would be impossible "to appoint a candidate...