Bosnia and Herzegovina will inevitably have to change its Dayton constitution to reach contemporary democratic standards and eliminate discrimination against its citizens on ethnic grounds, says the international community's High Representative in the country, Valentin Inzko.

The constitution that was written 25 years ago should be adapted to the present time, Inzko said in an interview with Dnevni Avaz daily published on Friday.

He said that the constitution would certainly be changed through the implementation of a large number of rulings handed down by the country’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

It is unacceptable that not so small a portion of the population cannot run in elections, the High Representative said, adding that it is absurd that Bosniaks and Croats in the Serb entity of Republika Srpska and Serbs in the Bosniak-Croat half of the country known as the Federation cannot run for the state presidency.

In 2016, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that this kind of discrimination had to be removed from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitution and election legislation.

Inzko recalled that there were also other rulings that had found that members of ethnic minorities and children from ethnically mixed marriages were also discriminated against.

This will certainly change if Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to join the European Union, and according to the intentions expressed by its politicians, it does, Inzko said.