DODIK: WE WILL NOT ALLOW BRUSSELS TO UNDERMINE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

BANJA LUKA, MAY 27 /SRNA/ - SNSD President Milorad Dodik said that Brussels would not be allowed to continue depriving Republika Srpska of its rights where Christian Schmidt had left off.

Dodik warned that a joint text by Carl Bildt and Wolfgang Petritsch on shutting down the Office of the High Representative /OHR/ contains what he described as a very dangerous thesis suggesting that the EU should complete, through the accession process, the work of unitarizing BiH that Schmidt had not managed to finish. He pointed out that when Bildt and Petritsch call for a more efficient decision-making structure, clearer competencies and limiting the possibility of blockades, they are referring to reducing Republika Srpska's constitutional position, competencies and veto rights. "Of course, we will not fall for such schemes by these two failed politicians", Dodik wrote on the social network X. He added that any proposal to turn the issue of Republika Srpska property into a chapter of the EU accession agreement would automatically halt all negotiations between BiH and the EU. "We will never agree to that, especially since the EU directly violated the Stabilization and Association Agreement between the EU and BiH, specifically Articles One and Two, which refer to strengthening the rule of law, democratic principles and human rights", Dodik stressed. According to him, not only did the EU silently approve Schmidt's tyranny and violations of principles to which the EU committed itself under the Stabilization and Association Agreement, but Brussels also directly financed Schmidt, contributing more than 50 percent of the OHR budget, enabling him to undermine the rule of law and democratic principles in BiH. "That makes them accomplices of Schmidt who violated the provisions of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, and in the coming period we will try to initiate the dispute-resolution mechanism envisaged by the agreement. If political representatives of the other two peoples in joint institutions do not agree to this, we will ask the Serb people what they think about further EU accession. We will not allow Brussels to continue disenfranchising Republika Srpska where Schmidt left off, even if all processes come to a halt", Dodik said.