'Critical situation': EU ministers to discuss ways to prevent possible breakup of Bosnia
Foreign ministers of the EU have met in Brussels to discuss ways to ease tensions in Bosnia in a bid to prevent the possible breakup of the Balkan country undergoing the most significant political crisis since the end of the 1992-1995 war.
Monday's meeting comes as the 26-year-old Dayton Peace Accords continue to be brought into question by the country's ethnonational leaders in what officials have described as a "critical situation".
“The nationalist and separatist rhetoric is increasing in Bosnia and Herzegovina and jeopardising the stability and even the integrity of the country,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
He added that “ministers will have to take a decision on how to stop these dynamics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to avoid the country [falling] apart in pieces".
Drafted to bring the war to an end in 1995, the US-sponsored peace deal created two main administrative units in Bosnia — the Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska, or RS, and the Bosniak-Croat majority Federation of BiH.
The two entities share state-wide institutions — such as the tax collection system, judiciary and even the armed forces — and all actions at a national level require consensus from all three ethnic groups.
The peace agreement also created one of the most complicated political systems in the world, with a dizzying maze of jurisdictions enabling the country’s three main ethnic groups to dominate domestic politics and exert control over key decision-making processes.
Last month, the US unveiled new sanctions against Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who has for years been advocating that the Republika Srpska should separate and unite with neighbouring Serbia.
The US has accused Dodik of “corrupt activities” that threaten to
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