BANJA LUKA: BIH BLOCKS ITSELF IN BERLIN PROCESS, RS DOESN’T WANT COOPERATION WITH KOSOVO

BANJALUKA, JUNE 28 (ONASA-Hina) – Bosnia and Herzegovina’s participation in the Berlin process, which aims to connect the countries of the Western Balkans and their faster integration into the European Union, was blocked after the parliament of Republika Srpska supported the veto on the ratification of the agreement on freedom of movement in the region. and mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
In the shadow of the stormy debate about the law by which the RS decided to prohibit the implementation of the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thus causing a major political crisis in the country, the entity parliament late on Tuesday night supported the veto that the chairperson of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željka Cvijanović, imposed on the decision to ratify the package of agreements which was signed by the prime ministers of the Western Balkans last year as part of the Berlin process.
The package was signed on behalf of BiH by Zoran Tegeltija, then chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers and at the same time a high-ranking official of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), headed by Milorad Dodik and Cvijanović in that party.
At the summit in Berlin in November 2022, the prime ministers signed an agreement allowing citizens of the Western Balkan countries to cross borders with identity cards and an agreement on the recognition of university diplomas and certificates of acquired professional qualifications.
It remains for all the signatory states to formally ratify those agreements, but in the case of BiH, it turned into a first-class problem when the members of the BiH Presidency, Denis Bećirović and Željko Komšić, tried to speed up the ratification.
Cvijanović opposed this with the explanation that she does not want to allow freedom of movement for the citizens of Kosovo because, as she said, that would be a reward for “the Aljbin Kurti regime that terrorizes the Serbs in Kosovo”.
According to the constitution and the law, the veto of one member of the BiH Presidency must receive two-thirds support in the parliament of the entity from which he was elected, and Cvijanović obtained this on Tuesday, so the decision voted for by the other two members of the Presidency automatically became invalid.
While they are blocking the implementation of the obligations undertaken in the framework of the Berlin process, the authorities of the RS are at the same time persistently insisting that BiH join the project called Open Balkans, which was launched by Belgrade with an almost identical program five years later and to which only Albania and North Macedonia have joined so far.
Skepticism towards this initiative prevails in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as most politicians and businessmen recognize it as Serbia’s attempt to dominate the region.