Urbanities,
Vol. 3 • No 1 • May 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
97
Misgivings over the EU Bid
From afar, the European Union seems to be the place they all rush to get into. And that was the
misconception I first came to Sarajevo with. But for those deciding Bosnia’s future, the EU is
much like heaven: everyone wants to go to heaven but doesn’t want to die to get there. A flimsy
analogy saying but one thing: the perks and privileges that come with European Union
membership are favoured by all, not so much the painful reforms and social transformation
demanded by the accession process.
I imagine this as a bitter pill to swallow for EU officials and enlargement enthusiasts
alike. Realising that the Balkans are not longer passionately yearning for Europe, not willing to
do whatever it takes to get there, is for many a malaise hard to whisk away. With last month’s
low turnout for Croatia EU referendum, this purely intellectual concept sported only in
conference halls, gains more ground. It shows the carrot- and- stick approach the EU assertively
used in the Balkans as obsolete.
This is something the European Union has to get a grip on, as well as understanding that
Balkan countries cannot be all dealt with in a similar fashion. The region is simply too complex,
with local enmities and expedient political interests chipping away at an ever vagrant trans-
regional consensus towards the EU. Out of all Balkan states, only Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Kosovo have yet to submit their EU membership application. If Kosovo is still a young state,
highly contested internationally and on life support from Washington, the same can’t be said
about Bosnia-Herzegovina. Yet, Bosnia has shown little national consensus in pushing for
reforms and furthering the process of EU integration.
The Status-quo
Again, for an onlooker such as myself the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina appears dire. Since
the Dayton Agreement was signed, little has been done to prepare the country for peace. It
simply appears that sixteen years have been wasted, and also has not prevented the country from
disintegrating along ethnic lines. Meanwhile, people became disenchanted with what was
supposed to be their unifying goal — EU and NATO accession, whilst politicians continue to
foster ethnic tensions for electoral gains. Attesting to this lingering ethnic strife is the current
political deadlock — Bosnia still has no government a year and a half after the last elections
were held.
