Croat position in Bosnia is very difficult and Bosnia is even threatening peace at the very border with the EU, MEP Zeljana Zovko said on Friday, during a lecture she gave at the Law Faculty in the Adriatic city of Split on the position and status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“The incomplete Election Law (in Bosnia), election of a Croat Presidency member who doesn’t represent the Croat people and is out of touch with the people, violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement and even threats from that country, to Croatia and the very EU, are threatening peace and security on the very border with the EU,” Zovko said.

Zovko added that a way out of this situation is amending the Election Law and Croatia’s foreign policy is directed towards achieving this goal.

She also noted that the international community should be a stability factor in Bosnia and as a “guarantor of the Dayton Peace Agreement, Croatia will continue to represent the interests of the 500,000 Croats living in Bosnia and abroad.”

In 2016, a Bosnian Croat politician won a lawsuit at the country’s Constitutional Court which ruled that the Constitution, which is part of the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the 1992-95 war, guarantees all the three constituent groups the right to elect their own representatives.

This ruling contradicts an earlier ruling, handed down by the European Court of Human Rights, which says that everybody should be able to be elected at any post and everybody should be able to vote for everybody, regardless of ethnic background.

Since then, Bosnian politicians have been in a deadlock over possible amendments to the Election Law.

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