KALUŽA: EU WILL BACK DOWN, SRPSKA'S POSITION SIMILAR TO THAT OF THE UNITED STATES

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 4 /SRNA/ – International relations expert Lučiano Kaluža told SRNA that BiH and the Balkans are the clearest example of diverging policies between Washington and Brussels, assessing that the EU will ultimately back down regarding the selection of a candidate for high representative.

Kaluža stated that Republika Srpska's position is similar to that of the United States - that the time has come to bring the high representative’s term to an end and leave the future to the democratically elected leaders of the BiH peoples. He noted that BiH remains a protectorate in the hands of major powers. "The major powers make decisions about it, although Republika Srpska is constantly fighting for that kind of integrity of BiH, particularly for the form of Republika Srpska’s autonomy that is possible, while advocating for major powers to participate as partners in agreements rather than as party deciding the country's fate," Kaluža emphasized. He said he believes that the Peace Implementation Council /PIC/ will reach an agreement by the end of June regarding candidates for high representative and assumes that the selected candidate will be the one supported by the United States. "The EU will back down. The EU is trying to position itself and is now in what we might call a conflict with the United States," Kaluža said. He added that the USA has concluded that the EU lacks a clear strategy and coherent policy and that EU member states tend to unite only when they perceive their interests to be threatened. "Perhaps the Balkans and BiH are the most obvious example of the divergence between U.S. and EU policies. I do not doubt that they will ultimately reach a compromise, but this shows that the EU becomes involved only when its interests are directly threatened and when it sees its ability to influence a particular territory slipping away," Kaluža stated. The political directors of the member states of the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council /PIC/, during their two-day meeting in Sarajevo, failed to reach a consensus on a candidate for the post of high representative, although such appointments are not within their formal competence. They postponed a decision until the end of the month. The appointment of a high representative is expected by the end of June. During the two-day discussions, two candidates emerged as frontrunners: Italian diplomat Antonio Zanardi Landi, nominated by Italy with the support of the United States, and French diplomat René Troccaz, nominated by France with the backing of Germany and the United Kingdom, report FBiH media.