President Zoran Milanovic has criticised conclusions on enlargement adopted by the Council of the EU, finding fault with the government's support for the conclusions "that do not guarantee rights for Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a constituent people," his office said on Wednesday.

EU foreign ministers on Tuesday adopted conclusions on EU enlargement after two years. The Council of the EU adopts conclusions on enlargement every December but last year it failed to do so as the member countries could not agree on the text of the conclusions.

In a letter to Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Milanovic expressed dissatisfaction with and opposition to the Council of the EU conclusions, noting that they do not guarantee rights to Bosnia and Herzegovina Croats as a constituent people in the country.

He expressed disagreement with the government’s having supported the conclusions “because by doing so it has backed down also on the positions agreed and adopted by the National Security Council.”

In his letter to PM Plenkovic, President Milanovic notes that protecting the status of BiH Croats as a constituent people is a strategic interest for Croatia, warning the PM that in the future he will not be able to support any joint document by organisations of which Croatia is a member that will not contain basic elements of protection for BiH Croats such as the status of a constituent people and legitimate representation in government bodies.

However, earlier conclusions of the Council of the EU, adopted during the terms of previous Croatian governments, made no mention of the constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina either.

The part of the conclusions that concern Bosnia and Herzegovina and the election reform in that country makes mention, at Croatia’s request, of the importance of implementing rulings by the BiH Constitutional Court, which was not envisaged by earlier drafts.

Under one of those rulings, passed in 2016, the country’s election law discriminates against the constituent peoples and confirms that deputies in the House of Peoples of the Federation of BiH Parliament are representatives of the constituent peoples and not of cantons.

“With reference to the institutional mechanisms, which were set by the Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to undertake further constitutional and electoral reforms to ensure equality and non-discrimination of all citizens, notably by implementing the Sejdic-Finci case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR),” read the adopted conclusions.

The Council underlines that no legislative or political step should be taken which would make the implementation of the Sejdic-Finci ruling and related ECtHR rulings more challenging or would further deepen divisions.

“The Council reiterates its call for an inclusive process of limited constitutional and electoral reforms, through genuine dialogue and in line with European standards to eliminate all forms of inequality and discrimination in the electoral process,” read the conclusions.