PM, High Representative Schmidt discuss BiH's election law and its aspirations to join Euro-Atlantic associations

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and the international community's High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Christian Schmidt, met in Zagreb on Tuesday for talks on changes to BiH's election law, its aspirations to join Euro-Atlantic associations and other topics.

"Prime Minister Plenković supported amending the Election Act to ensure equality and legitimate representation for all three constituent peoples in BiH, notably Croats," his office said in a statement.

Zagreb and BiH Croat parties have been calling for amending the BiH election law before the 2022 election to prevent the outvoting of Croats by the more numerous Bosniaks at all levels of government, in line with a ruling by the BiH Constitutional Court in the Ljubić case.

Bosniak parties, on the other hand, insist on the priority of implementing rulings by the European Court of Human Rights that has determined that BiH discriminates against citizens who are not Croats, Serbs or Bosniaks by preventing them from running for the state presidency.

During the talks, Schmidt underlined the need "to strengthen the functionality of institutions through the enhanced engagement of all political stakeholders in BiH, with support from the international community. He said that functionality was an important prerequisite for the country to stop being under international supervision and make progress on the path to the European Union," the statement said.

Plenković said that of all EU countries, Croatia was the strongest advocate of Bosnia and Herzegovina's EU journey, and Schmidt thanked him for that advocacy.

The two officials also discussed political trends in BiH and the Western Balkans, the PM's office said.

Text: Hina

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