ESCAPING THE FIRST CIRCLE OF HELL or The secret behind Bosnian reforms
ESCAPING THE FIRST CIRCLE OF HELL or The secret behind Bosnian reforms

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): International relations/trade, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: ESI – European Stability Initiative
Keywords: Bosnian EU-accession;
Summary/Abstract: One popular idea about Bosnia and Herzegovina among European observers is that Newton’s first law of motion applies to its politics: this law says that an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. For Bosnian politics, that outside force has to be the international community. One debate in EU capitals today is whether Bosnia is “ready for the next step.” Now that Bosnians have applied for accession, the EU has an obvious way to find out: to give Bosnia a questionnaire, the first step towards preparing an opinion, without delay. The conventional wisdom that Bosnians cannot coordinate when it comes to EU matters is wrong. The history of relations between Bosnia and the EU since 2000 shows that whenever Bosnian institutions were seriously challenged by the EU to co-ordinate, they were able to do so – to the surprise of their European counterparts, who sometimes acted as though Bosnia was expected to fail. This report explores this history and sets the record straight.

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