Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi last week in Jukkasjarvi, northern Sweden, where the European Commission met with the Swedish government.
Image: EPA
A report suggests that the EU enlargement commissioner will approve the Bosnian Serbs’ plans for secession. The EU Parliament is “deeply concerned”.
Et rarely does the European Parliament snub individual commissioners. Now it hits Olivér Várhelyi. In a passage of the annual foreign policy report, which was adopted by a large majority on Wednesday, Parliament expressed “deeply concerned by reports that the EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement is deliberately trying to undermine the centrality of democratic and rule-of-law reforms in EU to undermine accession countries”. It called on the Commission to conduct an “independent and impartial investigation” to determine whether the Hungarian breached the code of conduct and his contractual obligations. If confirmed, it should lead to Várhelyi’s dismissal.
Shortly before Christmas, a Bosnian website published a report by the EU ambassador in Sarajevo. The Austrian diplomat Johann Sattler reports on November 25 about a conversation between Várhelyi and Milorad Dodik, the president of the Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska, RS). He has long cultivated a secessionist rhetoric. Accordingly, both agreed that the parliament of the RS would vote on December 10 on the withdrawal from the state institutions of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but that this would only take effect six months later. Until then, the RS should work on the implementation of the investment plan decided by the EU and decide on necessary reforms. According to the ambassador, a “fragile political package” was put together.