ESI Proposal for Radical Reform

11 January 2004

On January 8, The European Stability Initiative submitted a new radical proposal for reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The proposal was submitted to the Governments and authorities at State, entity and cantonal level. The paper is titled "Making Federalism Work - A Radical Proposal for Practical Reform".

This proposal has been developed following extensive consultations with
political leaders and opinion-makers in the course of November and December
2003. It has been presented to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers,
the Foreign Minister, the leaders of the major opposition parties in both
Sarajevo and Banja Luka, and to leading present and former cantonal and
entity politicians. It has also been presented to international
organisations working in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including at a
brainstorming chaired by High Representative Paddy Ashdown in early
December 2003. The paper is published simultaneously by the Sarajevo-based
news weekly "Dani" today.

Calls for constitutional reform have been a regular feature of Bosnian
politics ever since the Dayton Agreement. There is widespread discontent
with the present structures of government.

This paper is an attempt to identify practical ways of achieving change.
Beginning with existing institutions and the interests which lie behind
them, it proposes a practical step forward that Bosnian politicians might
actually agree to and implement.

The paper outlines a step by step process of strengthening federalism in
Bosnia by abolishing the Federation and creating a simplified federal
structure, based around the current 12 units making up the state: the ten
cantons of the present Federation, the Republika Srpska and the District of
Brcko. The paper sets out why we believe this could attract support from
across the political spectrum.

These ideas emerged out of the consultations for the "Governance Assessment
of Bosnia and Herzegovina", a major study of governance issues carried out
by ESI during 2003 with the support of the United Kingdom's Department for
International Development forthcoming). We considered that the issues
presented here were important enough to merit a separate discussion paper.
The views we express are in no way those of the UK government.

Attached files

See the ESI Proposal.

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