Die Bemühungen der Europäischen Union um eine Verfassungsreform in Bosnien und Herzegowina
The European Union's Constitutional Reform Efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina have stagnated for years because local politicians have rarely agreed on important reforms. Among the factors that account for this situation is the constitution, which was an annex of the Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995, and which introduced a system that allows the three “constitutive ethnic groups” – Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Serbs and Croats – various veto-rights in decision-making. In addition, the constitution discriminates against citizens who do not belong to one of these three groups. Although most observers and politicians agree on the shortcomings of the “Dayton Constitution”, in recent years several constitutional reform efforts have failed. The article analyses the role of the European Union in these efforts, examines the policy approaches and instruments that were applied by the EU to support the reform process since 2006, and points out that the EU has only reluctantly applied the instrument of conditionality in the process.

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