Bosniens Vision auf dem Prüfstand

Die Bosnier brauchen laut Transitions Online eine langfristige Vision. Oder zeigt die Verfassungsdebatte in dem Land, dass die Bosnier bereits auf dem rechten Weg sind?

It may sound rather implausible, but it is nevertheless true that Bosnia, a country still often seen as the most troublesome part of the most troublesome region in Europe, is on its way to becoming an EU member. The process may take some time, to put it mildly, but it is now official and there are no two ways about it. 

Later this week Sarajevo will hold the first round of technical talks – that is, proper, substantive talks on real issues – with the European Commission on a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), a mechanism designed for all EU hopefuls in the Western Balkans as the first contractual step on the path that could take them all the way to membership. 

So this is a remarkable success story, is it not? Perhaps, though one wouldn’t be able to associate Bosnia with success from reading local media reports or the discourse preferred by many a Bosnian public figure. On the contrary, you would get a picture of a miserably neurotic and often spiteful place still consumed by the same old issues over which its three dominant ethnic groups went to war against one another almost 14 years ago. Albeit toned down a fair bit, the same clichés and derogatory names are making the rounds and the same old fears seem to determine behavior. 

But ask people such as the outgoing High Representative of the international community, Paddy Ashdown, and a picture emerges of a place that has made tremendous progress in turning itself from a war-torn caricature of democracy into a functioning country with an institutional landscape increasingly compatible with that of developed democracies. 

Diagnosis: Long-sighted…

So which is the right picture? Neither is false. The gloomy one does not just reflect the notoriously bad-tempered attitudes of many participants of Bosnia’s public life or Bosnia’s editors‘ lack of skill and will to break free from the stereotypes that seem hardwired into their thinking. No, the picture of an utterly failing country also predominates because Bosnia’s success has produced very few tangible benefits. 

Tangibility is not necessarily the ultimate criterion upon which to judge the success of political endeavors. Opening new prospects could count as much – and the success Ashdown and other international officials are keen to point to is all about opening new prospects for Bosnia. 

This is where the EU comes into the picture. Nearly all the many far-reaching reforms that Bosnia has made over the past few years have been carried out with a view to eventual membership of the EU or NATO (or both). It would have been difficult even to imagine such reforms without the region’s “European perspective,” to deploy the region’s preferred speak on the matter. 

To be sure, in real life many of those reforms still don’t weigh much more than the paper on which they were written. Indeed, Bosnia’s emerging new institutional architecture is still an empty shell waiting to be filled with meaningful democratic content. The only framework in which such content would stand any chance of materializing is the process of Bosnia’s integration with the EU. 

Like Macedonia, Bosnia perhaps lacks the internal cohesion that comes from a single majority identity and appears in need of belonging to, and focusing on, structures larger than itself in order to be able to also focus on tackling and managing its internal problems and contradictions. The prospect of EU membership, which is still often pictured as a prize larger than life, provides such a focus at this time. 

To read the article in full, visit the Transitions Online website.