Macron Snub Won’t Deter Balkan Nation’s EU Prep, New Leader Says

(Bloomberg) -- In a Balkan country so divided and dysfunctional it needed 14 months to form a government after elections, there’s one point of unity among its feuding factions: the desire to join the European Union.

That clarifies priorities for Zoran Tegeltija, the head of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s new cabinet. He must put the former Yugoslav republic back on track toward EU entry even as the bloc balks at taking in new members.

“If there’s one issue in Bosnia that hasn’t been politicized or divisive along ethnic lines, it’s EU accession,” Tegeltija, the president of Bosnia’s council of ministers, said in an interview last week. “By the end of 2020, I believe Bosnia will meet its commitments to get candidate status.”

Bosnia is one of only two countries left in south-east Europe that hasn’t achieved candidate status. Kosovo is the other. While almost 77% of Bosnia’s 3.5 million people want to join, the hurdles they face are substantial.

French President Emmanuel Macron vetoed opening negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, saying the EU needed to reconfigure its rules for applicants. The rejection sent ripples through Europe’s most volatile corner, where hopes for stability and prosperity are pinned on integrating with the continent’s richer West.

None more so than in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where a fragile calm hinges on a 1995 peace pact. It shares power between Muslims, Serbs and Croats, dividing the country into two autonomous areas linked by a weak central administration. Economic output per capita is about a third of that in the EU.

Bosnia’s Serb part, Republika Srpska, is dominated by leader Milorad Dodik, who has threatened to secede if the Muslim majority keeps pressing for more centralized governance. Conflicting views over possible membership in NATO heightened the tensions last year and hampered efforts to form a government.

Tegeltija, a member of Dodik’s party, said he was ready to increase cooperation “to a much higher level” with the military alliance, but ruled out plans to join. Most Serbs don’t want membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after it bombed them twice in the 1990s wars in Bosnia and in Kosovo.

‘Never Complete’

Any push to streamline decision-making in Bosnia could make things worse, Tegeltija said. Serbs and Croats want to keep what autonomy they have under the Dayton agreement, which ended fighting that killed more than 100,000 people in the country and forced millions from their homes.

“Any attempt for centralization would only strengthen the forces that advocate decentralization,” said Tegeltija. Fixing Bosnia can be done through the reform process that’s required to join the EU, he said.

On the EU side, some officials are trying to overcome Macron’s opposition. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently sought to rekindle accession hopes for the western Balkans. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday she wants to reach a deal with the French leader to start talks with Albania and North Macedonia before a March 26 summit.

“If positive moves are made toward Albania and North Macedonia, it would be a good signal that the EU is ready to go further,” said Tegeltija. “The EU will never be complete without all the states in the western Balkans.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Misha Savic in Belgrade at msavic2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Irina Vilcu at isavu@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andrew Langley

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