MITROVIĆ: AMERICA NOT READY TO PRIORITIZE INTERESTS OF EU

BELGRADE, JUNE 5 /SRNA/ - Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade Dragana Mitrović assessed that one can expect new breakdown in relations between the USA and the EU when it comes to the politics on BiH, stating that she does not believe that the American side is ready to give priority to the EU's interests.

Commenting on the failure to elect the candidate for the new high representative at the session of the Peace Implementation Council /PIC/, Mitrović told SRNA that it is obvious that there is less and less trust in US-EU relations, whereby the behavior of the European partners is unacceptable to the Americans. She assessed that in the future, Americans will strive to work more directly and independently, without new attempts to harmonize their actions with partners from the EU, who obviously have huge problem with accepting reality and big changes at the international stage, as well as their declining role. "Therefore, when it comes to the politics towards BiH, we can also expect new breakdown in US-EU relations, especially between USA and Germany, since the German interest is clear in this kind of EU's behavior, in many spheres and specific cases," Mitrović said. She noted that she does not believe that, in current circumstances, there is readiness among Americans to give priority to the EU and its conflicting interests when it comes to election of a new candidate for a high representative. "I think that, nevertheless, the Americans will not give in to them, especially now that they have decided to fill the embassies /in BiH, Serbia and Montenegro/ in the highest positions. Obviously, this indicates that they intend to engage more in the region through people who have the full support and trust of the current administration of the US President Donald Trump," Mitrović said. Speaking about the prospects for the abolition of the OHR, Mitrović reminded that in the discussion of the American representative in the UN Security Council about BiH, there was talk about the fact that the Americans want a solution to be reached in dialogue with representatives of three peoples and two entities, and not to continue imposing solutions that favor one side. "It seems that the American position, and the things that we could hear both from Russian and Chinese side, sounds like it is the way toward the final abolition of this function, which is actually associated with some kind of neo-colonial status of BiH and its inability to become a normal entity in international relations and led to the deepening of the crisis within BiH," Mitrović said. She said that it is now very difficult to predict in which direction relations with Sarajevo within BiH will develop, noting that Sarajevo is used to relying entirely on its foreign mentors, and with Republika Srpska, which is very successfully building its foreign policy and economic position in relations with global powers. "It is difficult to predict in which direction these trends will continue, but it is important to preserve peace and stability, to take steps that lead to strengthening economic stability and that have the support of powerful international factors, and this is what Banja Luka does with a great success, while in Sarajevo we see an ossification and a continuous turning in the closed circle of the past," Mitrović concluded.