(Bloomberg) — The European Union is looking into ways it can counter rising secession threats by Bosnian Serbs, including potentially suspending some funds and financial assistance, several people familiar with the matter said.
After years of such threats, the Bosnian Serb parliament last month adopted a series of measures aimed at cutting judicial, security and military ties with the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The country has been left with weak centralized rule and deep political division since 1995, when the fighting ended that left an estimated 100,000 people dead. Bosnia is divided into two entities along mainly ethnic lines between Bosnian Serbs, presided by Milorad Dodik, on one side and Muslims and Croats on the other.
About 10 EU member states have asked for such options to be prepared, one of the people said. These could also include curbs in funding from the bloc’s multi-billion euro economic investment plan, another person said.
A small number of states, including Germany, have called on the EU to adopt sanctions on Dodik, matching those imposed by the U.S. administration last week for engaging in destabilization and corrupt activities that threaten to split apart Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The EU is nowhere near agreeing on measures that require unanimity, like sanctions. But in the meantime it can present and implement other options, including freezing some of the funds to state institutions and those that benefit Dodik’s regime, two of the people said. That would not require unanimous backing, the people said.
The bloc had no immediate comment. Earlier in the day, a spokesman said on Twitter that divisive steps must stop, adding that the bloc has tools to react that include sanctions and reviewing assistance.
The EU has so far invested more than 3.5 billion euros ($4 billion) in Bosnia’s overhaul and projects reaching from de-mining to boosting agriculture and strengthening the rule of law since the end of the war.
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