Donor Co-Financing Assessment for New Country Strategy
Annex 1 - Political Assessment in the Context of Article 1
European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development
The state of affairs in democratic reforms directly affects the country's prospects in EU approximation. B&H submitted a formal application for the
membership in the EU in 2016. In May 2019, the EC issued the Opinion on the application, which was subsequently endorsed by the Council. The
Opinion identified 14 key priorities for the country to fulfil in order to be recommended for the status of EU candidate country. These priorities lie in
the areas of democracy and functionality of institutions, rule of law, fundamental rights and public administration reform. The Commission
encouraged the authorities to agree and implement socio-economic reform measures and to continue engaging in regional cooperation and
strengthening bilateral relations with neighbouring countries. Internal consensus on electoral reform will be important ahead of the 2022
elections.
Free Elections and Representative Government
Free, fair and competitive elections
The existing legal framework, even if complex and suffering from the lack of harmonisation (citizens vote in six distinct contests), enables
democratic elections. Elections are generally conducted in line with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Council of
Europe commitments, as assessed by these two institutions. The 2001 Election Law forms the basis of the electoral legal framework, which has
undergone substantive and positive changes over the years. In 2016, some changes were undertaken to implement the recommendations of
OSCE regarding increasing gender quota, campaign financing and strengthening punishments for the violation of the election process.
However, there is one area where the legal framework fundamentally fails in terms of both active and passive suffrage rights: existing ethnic-based
and residence-based limitations to the right to run in elections do not comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and run counter to
the OSCE Copenhagen document and other international standards. PACE, OSCE and the European Parliament have repeatedly requested B&H
authorities to amend its Constitution and electoral legislation in order to end discrimination against ethnic minorities. On 22 December 2009, the
ECHR issued a legally binding verdict providing that ethnicity-based ineligibility is incompatible with the general principles of the European
Convention. In 2011, an Interim Joint Parliamentary Committee was set up in order to draft amendments to the Constitution and electoral law in
order to comply with the ECHR verdict, but no changes have been agreed so far by the key stakeholders. ECHR has subsequently made further
verdicts related to ethnicity and residence-based limitations of electoral rights (Zornic v B&H, Pilav v B&H etc). In May 2021, an Inter Agency
Working Group was set up to propose changes to the electoral legislation ahead of the forthcoming elections due in October 2022.
In 2016, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional several provisions of the Election Law on the election of delegates to the FB&H House
of Peoples (upper chamber of the entity parliament, FB&H HOP) by the cantonal assemblies. The state parliament failed to amend the law.
Due to a lack of political agreement, the basic rights of citizens to vote in local elections had been undermined for many years on the local level in
the ethnically divided city of Mostar, where the verdict of the Constitutional Court had not been implemented and elections had not taken place. A
breakthrough political agreement and subsequent amendments to the Electoral Law allowed Mostar citizens to vote in the 2020 local elections for
the first time since 2008.
PUBLIC
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