EU foreign policy chief held phone calls with leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday urged the three main political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina to resume talks and overcome the political crisis.

Borrell held separate telephone calls with Bosniak leader Bakir Izetbegovic, Bosnian Croat leader Dragan Covic and Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, the EU’s external action service announced.

He urged them to resume “a serious and meaningful dialogue” to find a sustainable resolution for the political crisis and asked them to stay committed to the country’s constitutional and electoral reform, according to a EU statement.

He reiterated the bloc’s readiness to support to find a solution to the crisis and underlined “the EU’s unequivocal commitment to the territorial integrity, sovereignty and unity of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” it added.

EU foreign ministers will discuss the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina at their next meeting Feb. 21.

In 1995, the Dayton Peace Agreement ending the war in Bosnia created a double-federative system of two main entities: the Republika Srpska and the Croat-Bosniak populated Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The country entered its worst political turmoil since the end of the war last July when Serb officials started to boycott federal institutions because of a new law banning the denial of genocide and criminalizing the glorification of war criminals.

The crisis escalated in October when Milorad Dodik, the leader of the Serb-run entity Republika Srpska, announced it was quitting the main federal institutions to achieve sovereignty.