Merkel launches effort to end Bosnian stalemateThomas Brey, dpa (News Feature)

Feb 1, 2011, 11:22 GMT

Belgrade - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has launched an initiative to reconcile feuding Bosnian leaders and end a political stalemate that has prevented necessary reforms, Bosnian and German officials say.

But local politicians and observers are sceptical about any breakthroughs.

Bosnian Muslim leader Sulejman Tihic said over the weekend that he had met with Merkel in Berlin and that her aim is to push through a compromise for crucial constitutional changes, which would strengthen the central government.

Her goal is an ambitious one, given the fact that four months after parliamentary elections, the bickering Muslim, Serb and Croat leaders have failed to form a new government.

Merkel's cabinet has refused to confirm or comment on reports of her initiative, so the agenda remains sketchy.

'First on the agenda is the new government, then urgent reforms,' Rainer Stinner, foreign policy chief of Germany's Free Liberal Party (FDP), told Sarajevo newspaper Dnevni Avaz this weekend.

The FDP is a junior partner of Merkel's Christian Democrats. 'Urgent reforms' involve changes to the Bosnian constitution, part of the peace agreement that ended the Bosnian war in 1995.

The document is now proving an obstacle to the country's economic and political development. It created a state comprising two 'entities': the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Each ethnic group can effectively veto any legislation, making Bosnia nearly ungovernable.

The bickering has hindered necessary political reforms and prevented closer ties to the European Union and NATO.

An earlier initiative, undertaken by the EU and United States in 2008, failed miserably after the Serbs refused to cede their authority to central institutions.

Comprising one-third of Bosnia's 4 million inhabitants, the Serbs say they won't let themselves be out-voted by the Muslims, who make up just under half of the population. Croats represent 17 per cent.

According to Tihic, who recently spoke to the newspaper Nezavisne Novine, Merkel wants Bosnian sides to accept a so-called European clause.

This would eliminate veto power for any legislation related to EU integration. A simple majority of the central parliament would suffice to enact a law.

Existing rules would remain in place for all other legislation. These require approval by representatives in both chambers of the parliament.

Even this partial reform will probably be too much for the Serbs, who have have threatened secession if the country's central government is strengthened.

In his interview with Avaz, Stinner expressed scepticism that the ethnic groups could reach agreement on the constitutional changes.

One Serb leader, Mladen Ivanic, has said the European clause is unacceptable because it would lead to dismantling the Serb Republic.

Though Ivanic is in the opposition in the Serb parliament, the republic's nationalist president, Milorad Dodik, is likely to be even less tolerant of constitutional changes.

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