Darijana Filipovic Plans Mostar Office, Ambassador Review
The newly elected Croat member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency told RTV Herceg-Bosne the seat stays in Sarajevo and ambassadors will be judged on results.
Darijana Filipovic (HDZ BiH), the newly elected member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Croat people, has announced that she will open an Office of the Croat Member of the Presidency in Mostar alongside the seat in Sarajevo, and that she will review the work of the country’s diplomatic and consular network. For Serbia, as a neighboring state, this is not only Sarajevo’s internal business: the announcements touch on foreign policy and ambassadors, and Filipovic has yet to reveal her first official visit, beyond saying she would like it to be Croatia.
Filipovic spoke about the start of her term to RTV Herceg-Bosne. One of her first steps in office will be a conversation with the other two Presidency members, Denis Becirovic and Zeljka Cvijanovic. In her words, the three should first establish the issues on which they agree, above all BiH’s European path and the stability of its institutions.
How does Filipovic see the talk of outvoting?
During the campaign and after it, there was much talk of a 2:1 ratio in the three-member Presidency. She answered it this way:
“I heard those stories about a 2:1 ratio, a 1:2 ratio and about who will outvote whom, both during this campaign and after it. The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina exists precisely so that we can do our job in line with our powers, for the benefit of those who elected us, but equally for the common good of Bosnia and Herzegovina. My wish is for our term to change the perception of the Presidency, from an institution that is a source of conflict and disagreement to a model example of how Bosnia and Herzegovina can function”
Why a Mostar office and not a parallel institution?
Filipovic confirmed that she intends to open an office in Mostar and rejected the reading that this would create a new institution. According to her, the space should allow more direct work and communication with citizens, especially with the voters who gave her the strongest support. She said:
“The seat of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is in Sarajevo, but the Croat member of the Presidency can have her own office in Mostar, and these are not parallel institutions, as people tried to attribute to me. It should be a space where the Croat member of the Presidency can work and receive people, so the seat is in Sarajevo, and Mostar will get the Office of the Croat Member of the Presidency”
What does a review of the diplomatic and consular network mean?
Filipovic spoke during the campaign about possible changes among BiH’s ambassadors, and she now says she has not dropped that intention. Any dismissals, as she explained it, should not be political retribution but an assessment of the network’s work, results and efficiency. She also announced an analysis of how BiH is currently represented by diplomats around the world:
“I want to carry out a serious, professional review of the diplomatic and consular network because we have to know who represents us, where we are represented and what the results are. In my opinion, diplomacy cannot exist for its own sake, and where it does not work, something needs to change”
She will announce the country of her first official visit at the start of her term.
What does she expect from the new Council of Ministers?
Filipovic said that the appointment of the Council of Ministers chair depends on agreement among parliamentary majorities, and that the Presidency has a clearly defined role in that process. From the new executive she wants a program built on the European path, energy stability, infrastructure, the economy and investment:
“The Council of Ministers, as the executive authority, should have a clear program, but above all it should have the democratic capacity to make decisions. What I expect, apart from a program that should be based first of all on the European path of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is also work on energy stability, infrastructure projects, the economy and investment”
European integration, Filipovic believes, must not remain only a part of political and foreign policy rhetoric. The path to the EU has to be accompanied by internal reforms whose results citizens feel in everyday life, and she named safer roads and better-functioning institutions as examples. She sees Croatia as one of BiH’s key allies in that process.
