German, UK, Ministers Push Bosnia Reform Plan

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his British counterpart, Phillip Hammond, are due in Bosnia later this week, to kick-start the new EU plan for the country, diplomatic sources told Balkan Insight on Wednesday.

The two foreign ministers are expected in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, on Thursday and Friday, where they will meet the tripartite presidency, parliament and other top officials.

Steinmeier and Hammond initiated the new plan, aimed at helping Bosnia to emerge from its current crisis and get back on the EU path.

Last November they outlined basic details of the initiative in a joint letter to EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, and the Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement, Johannes Hahn.

It was presented then to Balkan foreign ministers in Berlin and approved by the European Foreign Affairs Council on November 17 and the General Affairs Council on December 15, thus officially becoming the new EU strategy for Bosnia.

The first step requires Bosnian political leaders to agree on a declaration in which they pledge continued backing for the EU integration process.

After Bosnia's parliament signs and adopts this declaration, the EU is supposed to activate Bosnia's long delayed Stabilization and Association Agreement, SAA.

However, the new plan become stuck at the first hurdle when Milorad Dodik, President of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, on January 2 rejected the draft statement proposed by the Bosnian Presidency on December 31.

A second setback has since followed after Croatia's new right-wing President elect, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, complained that the new initiative did not address problems faced by...