EU warns against new move of Bosnian Serbs towards independence

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - A decision by Bosnian Serb lawmakers to vote in favor of creating a separate judicial authority is “an unacceptable violation” of the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a European Union official said Thursday.

“Thursday’s vote by the Republika Srpska National Assembly in favor of a law establishing a separate High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council in the Republika Srpska constitutes an unacceptable violation of the constitutional and legal order of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Peter Stano, the lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy for the EU, wrote in a statement.

The statement warned that the law would deepen “legal uncertainty and instability” in the judicial system and seriously undermine the country’s European perspective.

“The EU urges leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in particular the Republika Srpska leadership, to put an end to escalatory steps” and to resume dialogue within state institutions, it added.

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