Improving Territorial Governance and Speeding up the Integration Process into the European Union: Good Ways of Consolidating Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Abstract

Considering the eight territorial entities that made up the former Socialist Federalist Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina is the one characterized by the most complex internal situation. What concerns the people is that this Country is composed by three different nations, believing in three religions, using two alphabets and speaking three similar but not identical languages; what concerns the organization of the State, is that it is constituted by two entities - one of which is a Federation - and a District which enjoys special conditions of administration. The multilevel composition of the Country reflects in the structure of the State constitutional Bodies which aims to grant an equal representation to all the nations living within its borders. These Bodies do not exercise their powers in a completely autonomous way but they still have to share them with an international Authority, the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Constitution itself does not derive from an autonomous constituent process. Although it has been declared a potential candidate for membership following the Thessaloniki European Council (2003) with the other Western Balkan Countries, Bosnia Herzegovina shares with Kosovo the last position in the development of its relations with the EU. The stalemate in the relations with Brussels is partially due to the lack of progress in both political and economic criteria. In light of the above, this paper would try to answer two questions. Among the sincere cooperation and territorial governance instruments, which ones could be better used to boost the stability of Institutions and to strengthen the democracy in the Country? Could the speeding up of the integration process into the EU lead to the same result? From a methodological point of view, the work will start analyzing the main sincere cooperation and governance instruments (such as the establishment of collective bodies or the adoption of special decision making processes) already applied in national or supranational systems sharing similar problems as Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to value their suitability to the Country. The work will then analyze the approach adopted by the EU during the fifth and the sixth enlargement for what concern political conditionality and the instruments used to help the Candidate Countries in gaining the accession criteria. The expected results are on one side to suggest the instruments, inspired by the principle of sincere cooperation, that could better improve the governance and ensure a smoother functioning of the State Institutions. On the other side the paper aims to suggest a kind of approach and support that the EU could adopt through the Country in order to foster the ongoing democratic stabilization process.