Zagreb – When it comes to achieving equality for Croats as one of the three constitutive peoples of BiH, the question of a third entity cannot be a taboo subject, said Croatian members of the European Parliament on Thursday in Zagreb at a public hearing on the EU’s new political relations toward BiH. The European Parliament in February declared a resolution on BiH, which Ivan Vukoja, sociologist from Herzegovina and chair of the hearing, called “epochal,” and which seeks constitutional and institutional changes for the country to become functional and guarantee equality of the constitutive peoples.
Vukoja says that he would, in order to avoid thinking of a third entity as an exclusively Croat composition, call the third entity “an institutional federal unit with Croats as a majority.
” HDZ MEP Davor Steir said that to resolve the issue of Croat equality in BiH, it is necessary to present the future of the country to Europe “in concepts that the West can accept.” “Not nationalism, but federalism,” said Stier at the hearing, organized by the Home Club of Herzegovinian Students and the Citizens’ Association Istina.
Tonino Picula, MEP from the SDP, says that talk of a third entity is legitimate, because the Croat question in BiH is still open. “But Croats must be careful that they don’t close it themselves with repeating the mistakes of the past and insisting on something that they can’t get at this moment,” he said.
He doesn’t consider a third entity a solution and offers his own. “If we want to fix BiH, let’s cantonize the entire country, but do it rationally,” without burdening with bureaucracy.
“Let’s achieve both collective and individual rights,” exhorts Picula. (oslobodjenje.ba)
