ZAGREB, January 13, 2019 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday he had not talked yet with HDZ BiH president Dragan Čović, who has been criticised for attending a Republika Srpska Day commemoration, as has Ivan Del Vechio who, because of that, was dismissed as Croatia’s ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) . “I leave it up to Mr. Ćović and the HDZ BiH to comment on this,” Plenković told reporters in Split.
He reiterated that Croatia had not been informed that Del Vechio would attend the commemoration in Banja Luka on January 9. He said Del Vechio should have consulted Croatia if he had a meeting in Banja Luka that had nothing to do with the commemoration. “He shouldn’t have been there on that day.”
Plenković recalled that Del Vechio had been Croatia’s ambassador to BiH five years and had never attended Republika Srpska Day commemorations. “It’s a little unusual that he ended up in such a situation at the end of his term and career. That’s why he was recalled to Zagreb for consultations and we will start appointing a new ambassador to BiH very soon.”
Asked what message Čović had sent by attending the commemoration, Plenković said “it’s extremely important that Croatia’s stance on BiH is well-meaning and friendly.” He added that Croatia had been the country “which has supported BiH’s European journey the most, but by ensuring the equality of the Croat people as a constituent people, of course.”
Plenković said he informed the European Council twice that BiH’s current election law “makes it possible to get around the Dayton/Paris agreement, which is also BiH’s Constitution, bringing Croats, as the least numerous constituent people, into an unequal position because their member of the BiH Presidency is elected by members of the other people in the Federation.” He was referring to Bosniaks in the Croat-Bosniak entity, called the Federation.
Aside from government formation in BiH and the continuation of its European path, it is important that the international community, primarily the European Union, help BiH “adopt a just election law under which all three constituent peoples will be equal,” Plenković said.
“We would certainly prefer it if Dragan Čović, who won 155,000 votes, or 80% of the vote of the Croats in BiH who went to the polls, was a member of the BiH Presidency and if he was seeing to the vital interests of the Croatian people in BiH,” he added.
More news on Croatia’s relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina can be found in the Politics section.
