The Importance of Effective Institutional Frameworks in the EU Integration Process: Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovina

The progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the process of EU integrations can be described as slow and difficult. Many reasons contribute to such development, starting with political instability. However, even in the case of absence of political difficulties, certain features of the constitutional and legal system of the country make decision-making at state level and conducting necessary reforms slow and ineffective. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitution is a part of a Dayton Peace Agreement, which was a result of long peace negotiations to end one of the bloodiest conflicts in the 1990’s. It achieved in stopping the conflict, but inserted many features which make reforms difficult, such as complicated decision-making process, fragmented state apparatus and division of competences between different levels of government. One of the features of the constitutional system is the set of group rights belonging to the so-called constituent peoples. The principle foresees certain procedural rules related to the parity in appointment of officials as well as necessary quotas and veto powers in the decision-making process in the legislative and executive bodies. Primarily seen as a compromise to bring back inter-ethnic trust, in recent years, it has been increasingly seen by European Institutions such as European Court of Human Rights and the European Commission, as discriminatory and ineffective, hampering the progress of the state on its path to EU integration. The European Court of Human Rights has in multiple cases described the realization of principle of constituent peoples as contrary to human rights standards. On the other hand, the EU institutions, such as European Commission, in its assessments of the readiness of Bosnia and Herzegovina to progress in EU integrations and potentially become a EU Member state, has pointed to the fact that realization of the principle is detrimental to the decision-making process. The non-compliance with the European Court of Human Rights decisions related to the discriminatory nature of the principle, has slowed the country’s EU integration process, even in the stage of signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, as is still an outstanding obligation.  All of that is negatively impacting institutional frameworks aimed at devising and implementing necessary reforms on the EU integration path. This article analyses the position of the principle of “constituent peoples” in the legal system of the country and its evaluation by the European institutions as detrimental to country’s progress.