{"id":84847,"date":"2026-07-02T13:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/84847\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T13:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:40:09","slug":"eu-determined-to-resolve-standoff-over-bosnia-envoy-kallas-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/84847\/","title":{"rendered":"EU determined to resolve standoff over Bosnia envoy, Kallas says"},"content":{"rendered":"

EU wants European peace envoy in Bosnia, Kallas saysEU, U.S. divided over the candidate for High RepresentativeKallas urges reforms, warns of Bosnia losing EU fundsSARAJEVO, July 2 (Reuters) – The EU is determined to find a \u200bstrong candidate for the post of international peace envoy for Bosnia and Herzegovina, EU \u200cforeign chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday, to replace a German diplomat who resigned, opens new tab<\/a> in May under what he described as U.S. pressure.Last month, countries failed, opens new tab<\/a> to reach a consensus on a successor for Christian Schmidt as high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, a \u200bpost with wide powers in the country since the 1990s under international agreements that ended \u200bwar there. The role has always been held by a European, with a \u2060U.S. deputy.<\/p>\n

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“We are determined to find the European candidate who can help move Bosnia and Herzegovina forward,” \u200bKallas said during a visit to Bosnia.<\/p>\n

“While the negotiations on a successor continue, ultimately the success of \u200bthe Office of the High Representative will be measured by the day it is no longer needed,” Kallas said. “Until then, it remains an important pillar of stability.”<\/p>\n

The U.S., which had announced that the “U.S.-led nation-building era has passed”, has made clear \u200bthat it wants a new envoy with a more limited mandate<\/a>. It supported Italian diplomat Antonio Zanardi Landi \u200bfor the job, while most European countries supported French diplomat Rene Troccaz.The United States has said it would reconsider<\/a> its \u200crole in \u2060Bosnia and Herzegovina unless its preferred candidate is approved.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Schmidt’s deputy Louis Crishock was named as the acting high representative until a new envoy is appointed by July 14 at the latest.<\/p>\n

Bosnia is at the bottom of a queue of the Western Balkan hopefuls aspiring to join the EU, as \u200bit has stalled its \u200breform progress due to \u2060political blockades over the past two years.<\/p>\n

“Sustained reforms are the fastest and most effective way to advance the accession process,” Kallas said, adding: “This window of opportunity \u200bfor accession may not be open forever.”<\/p>\n

She said Bosnia had already lost \u20ac108 \u200bmillion in EU \u2060funding from the bloc’s \u20ac6 billion growth plan for the region, and was facing the risk of losing an additional \u20ac370 million unless it proceeds with necessary reforms.<\/p>\n

Bosnia is divided into two political entities, one controlled by ethnic \u2060Serbs and \u200bone controlled by Bosniaks and Croats, with a weak central government \u200bsupervised by the international envoy.<\/p>\n

The Bosnian Serb representatives in state institutions have been consistently blocking EU-related reforms, with their nationalist pro-Russian \u200bleadership dismissing EU accession and turning to the U.S. administration for support.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic
\nEditing by Peter Graff<\/p>\n

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Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EU wants European peace envoy in Bosnia, Kallas saysEU, U.S. divided over the candidate for High RepresentativeKallas urges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24987,34971,11327,41790,11340,11331,11334,11347,11332,3461,34980,11336,3455,3450,3459,11333,11338,11348,11346,3457,28745,34979,3447,28742,39,3446,40,8831,11330,3439,3441,13423,11354,24988,11324,34981,3445,34973,382,11328],"class_list":["post-84847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-amers","tag-ba","tag-ceeu","tag-cwp","tag-destafa","tag-destcsa","tag-destg","tag-destgns","tag-destlby","tag-destouktpm","tag-destouswdm","tag-destpge","tag-destpsc","tag-destrast","tag-destrbn","tag-destreulb","tag-destrnp","tag-destrws","tag-destrwsa","tag-destucdptest","tag-dip","tag-eeu","tag-emea","tag-emrg","tag-eu","tag-europ","tag-european-union","tag-ezc","tag-fr","tag-gen","tag-intag","tag-it","tag-mtpix","tag-namer","tag-news1","tag-packageworld-news","tag-pol","tag-seeu","tag-us","tag-weu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}