The State Presidency session that was supposed to discuss the appointment of the prime minister-designate and the Annual National Programme (ANP) for the NATO was called off, Presidency Chairman Zeljko Komsic confirmed at a press conference on Tuesday.
The tripartite Presidency held consultations and passed a conclusion on cancelling the session, minutes before the session was supposed to take place.
“If you ask me what's going to happen next, I am sorry. I wished for those 15 minutes that a compromise would be reached and we would solve all misunderstandings in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Komsic.
“I believe we could have reached it but, unfortunately, we didn't.”
The Presidency was set to hold two separate sessions, a regular one and a special session on the appointment of the prime minister-designate and the adoption of the disputed document for the NATO.
Although the leaders of three strongest nationalist parties signed earlier this month an agreement that among other things stipulates the principles to form the government, the statements they gave in the following days showed the deal was not likely to be implemented within 30 days, as agreed.
The leaders of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) and the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) put the signatures on the document agreed last week.
The country's road to NATO which was vaguely mentioned in the leaders’ agreement is a stumbling stone and has been preventing the government formation in the past ten months after the general election was held.
While Bosniak and Croat representatives support the membership, the Serb political leadership is against it and is resolute in maintaining the stance on military neutrality.
The Presidency session was called off, according to Komsic, “to leave the room for agreement.”
Outvoting the Serb Presidency member regarding the disputable ANP for NATO would further block the government formation while voting against the prime minister-designate, the candidate of Dodik's SNSD, would leave him out of the game, added Komsic who represents Croats in the Presidency.
“We all know it is not a matter of whether the Presidency should discuss this technical document or not, but we have to because it depends on it whether Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue its road to NATO or not, if it will give up on it, make a pause or take a step backwards,” underlined Komsic, whose proposal to task the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers to deliver the ANP was rejected.
Addressing the media after the session, Dodik said he did not oppose the vote on the ANP but that he would vote against it, as he previously announced.
“There's no need to discuss the ANP because the Serbs and I will not vote that document. We believe that the road to NATO is unacceptable for us for a number of reasons,” he underlined.
The failed session left the country in a months-long stalemate, blocking among other processes its European Union integration. Although Bosnian political leadership unanimously supports the country's road to the EU, the government formation remains one of the main conditions to advance on that road.
