On the eve of the 10th anniversary of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s accession to the Council of Europe, which will be celebrated in April 2012, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), meeting in plenary in Strasbourg, has once again called on the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the key political stakeholders to “stop obstructionism and work constructively at the level of state institutions”. “It is time to move from ethnocracy to democracy,” said Karin Woldseth (Norway, EDG) – one of the co-rapporteurs on the subject, with Jean-Claude Mignon (France, EPP/CD) – at the opening of the debate.

In its resolution adopted today, the Assembly regrets, in particular, that more than a year after the elections, no government has yet been formed. Despite the serious economic and financial situation in the country, the leaders of the six main political parties continued their bargaining about the ethnic distribution of posts in the Council of Ministers until 28 December 2011, when they finally reached an agreement, notably on the appointment of a new chairman of the Council of Ministers who, in the Assembly’s view, “now urgently needs to complete government formation, in order to get the country back on track”. (more...)