The US Embassy and the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) took note, on Tuesday 18 December, the progress made in the creation of the House of the Federation of Peoples.
Earlier in the day, the Central Election Commission of Bosnia (CEC) adopted a decision to correct the electoral law and allow the establishment of a new government within the Federation.
"We commend the CEC for taking action that will enable formation of Federation authorities and call upon all relevant stakeholders to undertake necessary steps in this direction,” Americans and Europeans stressed in a joint statement. While several Bosnian parties and officials described the CEC decision as "unconstitutional" and announced that they would appeal to the Constitutional Court, the EU and the United States reiterated that disagreements over the decision should be resolved by legal means and that the process of forming the government should not be taken hostage.
This decision "does not relieve responsible authorities from the obligation to address current gaps in the BiH Election Law in a systematic way,” they also warned. Europeans and Americans therefore encouraged the parties "to intensify work on finding compromise solutions bringing the country closer.[to] European standards and democratic norms that ensure the equality of all in Bosnia and Herzegovina." (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)