New York - The European Union on Monday urged Bosnia- Herzegovina to build momentum before next spring so it can join the bloc. Swedish Ambassador Anders Liden, who chairs the EU group at UN headquarters in New York, said Bosnia's internal political process is reaching a decisive phase, requiring a compromise to settle differences.
"Momentum needs to be built before the spring when Bosnia- Herzegovina enters a period dominated by the election campaign, which may be less conducive to reform and compromise," Liden said.
Recent progress to meet EU benchmarks for integration, including a liberal visa policy, has proven that the country can implement difficult and demanding reforms "once there is sufficient political will. This is encouraging," Liden said.
Liden said the EU has given Bosnia significant development and humanitarian assistance over the years, and that future assistance will focus "exclusively on facilitating EU integration."
During the debate on Bosnia's political problems, diplomats complained that the situation has deteriorated because of continued divisions in the top leadership in Sarajevo.
A report by High Representative Valentin Inzko, the EU envoy, said a "series of obstacles, delays and failures" have prevented progress in settling disputes over political leadership, the constitution and implementing the 1995 Dayton Peace agreement.
"All of these failures - and let me say the word all - are the consequences of political differences and obstructionism," Inzko said.
The Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb party in the three-party government in Sarajevo - the others being Croat and Bosnian Muslim parties - has "from time to time created a problem at state level and then criticizing the state for having the problem," he said.
The Republika Srpska, which allies with Serbia, has wanted to secede from Bosnia and has blocked democratic reforms. Bosnian Serbs were blamed for the 1992-1995 Bosnian ethic war, which ended with the Dayton agreement.
Inzko said a quarter of the Bosnian population is unemployed, salaries and pensions are low, poverty is endemic and bank lending has dried up. He said Sarajevo's political stalemate was not helping Bosnia to take necessary steps to join the EU and NATO.
British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said Inzko's report was "bleak and honest."
"We have seen another negative European Commission Progress Report," Grant said. "And the political climate has deteriorated further, with a worrying increase in nationalist rhetoric, particularly but not exclusively, from the authorities in the Republic of Srpska. This threatens to seriously impede any further progress."
But Nikola Spiric, the chairman of Sarajevo's council of ministers, disagreed with Inzko's assessment of the situation. Spiric said the report had received contributions from Inzko's local associates who had fallen into "the trap of superficiality and unprofessionalism."
Spiric defended the Bosnian Serb party, saying that it can contribute to political progress.
"The opinionated tone with which the report refers to the Republika Srpska as an obstruction and the Federation of Bosnia- Herzegovina as being in difficulty cannot but disturb any objective observer," Spiric said.
