Bosnien und Herzegowina

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s High Representative Christian Schmidt used his powers to break a political deadlock and impose a decision to allocate finances from state reserves to hold October’s general elections.

The war in Ukraine has forced Bosnian Serb nationalists to delay plans to pull their region out of Bosnia-Herzegovina's national institutions, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said.

High Representative Christian Schmidt said that more than 26 years after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace – known as the Dayton Accords – citizens are once again talking about the possibility of another conflict, posing the risk of inflammatory incidents.

Germany will work for an extension of the EU's peacekeeping mission in Bosnia as concerns mount about instability spilling over from the Ukraine war, but has not yet decided whether to provide troops, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said.

The law would have allowed for the Serb-majority Republika Srpska to take over property owned by the central government. Serb leader Milorad Dodik said he does not accept the decision.

The German government has warned of Russia’s destabilisation strategies, possibly challenging peace and stability in the Western Balkan region, most notably in the already dysfunctional Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

Thirty years after the siege of Sarajevo, the UN team in Bosnia and Herzegovina reiterated the importance on Wednesday of pursuing justice and reparation for victims, survivors and their family members.

The EU's foreign policy chief issued a thinly veiled warning to Russia on Wednesday (16 March) to cease meddling in Bosnia, amid growing concerns about instability to Europe's south with a war already raging to the east, in Ukraine.

NATO and the EU are beefing up the peacekeeping force in Bosnia from 600 to 1,100 amid a 'deterioration of the security situation internationally' – in the Balkans as well as Ukraine.

Those pushing the Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska to have its own army and other institutions risked seeing the country "fall apart in pieces," EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Monday (21 February).