EU's newest recruit... Bosnia?

Bosnia has gained welcome from the United States and a majority of the EU to begin working towards membership in the European Union. The people of Bosnia, a spawn country of Soviet Russia, received a letter from the foreign ministers of Britain and Germany, two of the more powerful states in the European Union, which discussed the region’s future and a possible application to the desired European Union. The plan for Bosnia, headed by Britain and Germany for the most part, is to begin working with Bosnian politicians to ensure a commitment to unifying their currently divided country in order to make it more functional. Should Bosnian politicians cooperate and succeed, and after an undisclosed amount of progress that the EU describes as “some initial progress”, Bosnia would receive an invitation to apply to the EU. With so many other world conflicts and situations, economically and socially, why on Earth is the European Union devoting attention to recruiting such a country as Bosnia?

In a letter asking the United States to consider engagement in Bosnia, Zivko Budimir, the President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (one of Bosnia’s entity/states) describes the region’s natural resources as areas of attractive potential investment. However, most of the letter, along with many of the current economic and social situations that have to be overcome and are pointed out by Britain and Germany, make Bosnia seem like a nation nowhere near fit to receive an application to the EU. Two current facts of Bosnia noted by Budimir that, right off the bat, are very unattractive on the nations résumé include 1.) A 40% unemployment rate and 2.) The majority of foreign investment in Bosnia comes from the Middle East and the East and is rising. The rest of the letter indicates no plans to fix these what-would-be unique traits to Bosnia if they were in the EU, but instead addresses the fact that Bosnia’s civil society is a complex, tense, and weak one. The nation, since it’s founding in 1992, has been made up of three different and distinct ethnicities in a society that has exemplified failed human rights for years. Since the end of the Bosnian Civil War in 1995, minorities of the region have suffered lack of basic societal rights similar to those that existed in the US until the 1960’s. These minorities still are literally not allowed to hold upper positions in the clearly unstable, three-president led government. Among the three majority ethnicities, the Serbs continue to halt and unified strength to Bosnia by demanding more power to their mini-state within the nation. To wrap up this brief list of the main problems with Bosnia, in 2009, Jakob Finci who is Jewish and Dervo Sejdic, a Roma, (both are minorities), successfully challenged the section of the Bosnian government that forbade minorities from holding select upper government positions. To this day, no progress toward fixing this inequality of the Bosnian government has been achieved. These human rights violations and Bosnia's current government structure are very unique in comparison to current members of the EU. The pattern of little change in the nation since the end of their civil wars suggest that perhaps these policies and structures are not very efficient developing into an attractive, successful state.

With the current fight in the Middle East, uncertainty as to Russia’s next move, and a sinking European economy, you’d think the EU would have a lot on its plate at this time. However in the past month, a considerable amount of time and attention has been given to Bosnia. It’s quite clear that Bosnia needs social reform in their bizarre tri-presidential led government soon, and will likely need the help of the EU and the US (which they would love) if they want it to be effective. In assisting them, however, it seems as though the EU (Britain and Germany) think they might as well just bring Bosnia on into the club. This would call for financial investment, possible disagreement or conflict within Bosnia’s extremely mixed culture/society, and if the application was extended and fulfilled, a new member to the EU that is relatively weak compared to all the others. And for what? Natural Resources in Bosnia that no one really, really needs right now?  It seems at this time, the EU has more important things to worry about than gaining this country and maybe come back to them once they accomplish something themselves.

Sources:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2014/11/bosnia#comments

http://infographics.economist.com/20141108_Letter/Letter.pdf

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/11/06/eu-and-us-welcome-new-plan-for-bosnia-path-toward-eu-membership/

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/11/bosnia-herzegovina-president-time-is-now-for-us-to-engage-with-my-country/