Constitutional reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina

[2] The PACE also tasked the Council of Europe's Venice Commission to assess whether the use of the High Representative's "Bonn Powers" respected the basic principles of the Council of Europe, whether the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina was in compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Charter of Local Self-Government, as well as to generally review the rationality and functionality of the constitutional setup of the country.

"[2] The Venice Commission also criticised the weakness of State-level institutions, left incapable to "effectively ensure compliance with the commitments of the country with respect to the Council of Europe and the international community in general", as well as the overlap of competences between the Presidency and the Council of Ministers, the lack of specific limitations for the use of the national interest veto, the entity veto, and the House of Peoples as a legislature.

[2] In April 2005, Protocol XII to the European Convention on Human Rights – which establishes a general prohibition of discrimination – also came into force after ratification by 12 Council of Europe member states, including Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The 2005 Opinion of the Venice Commission, which coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Dayton Agreement opened the debate on a constitutional reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the impulse of U.S. diplomacy, with a view of modernizing the country's institutions.

[2] Bosnian leaders also agreed in a joint statement to commit to a process that "will enhance the authorities of the state government and streamline parliament and the office of the Presidency".

Differently than the closed-door approach taken by U.S. diplomacy for the April Package, Schwartz-Schilling aimed to set up a "constitutional convention" to foster public debate and break the monopoly of ethno-nationalist parties.

Although Germany was ready to finance it, the proposal was not welcomed by the EU Council (who deemed it too internationally-driven) and by the Commission (who was worried the initiative would complicate the ongoing talks around police reform).

On 8 November 2008, the leaders of the three main national parties (Milorad Dodik for the SNSD, Sulejman Tihić for the SDA and Dragan Čović for the HDZ BiH) signed a joint agreement in Prud stating their aim of harmonising the Bosnian Constitution with the European Convention on Human Rights, to clarify state competences and establish functional institutions, and to reorganise the middle layers of governance, including settling the legal status of Brčko.

[2] Despite monthly meetings of party leaders, the "Prud Agreement" did not lead to a compromise on territorial reorganisation, as Tihić and Čović saw the talks as a way to abolish the entities with four non-ethnic regions, while Dodik aimed to entrench the right of Republika Srpska to secede after a three-year period.

The court determined that this restriction (an estimated 400,000 Bosnian citizens, 12 per cent of the population, cannot run for the Presidency due to their religion, ethnicity, or place of residence) violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

[2] In February 2013, the European Commission decided to step up its involvement, with the direct facilitation of talks by Füle, in coordination with the Council of Europe's secretary-general Thorbjørn Jagland.

[17] In March and April 2013, with the support of the Director-General for Enlargement Stefano Sannino, the EU Delegation in Sarajevo facilitated a series of direct talks between party leaders, but with no concrete outcome.

[18][2] During the summer of 2013, Čović and Bosnian Presidency member Bakir Izetbegović reached a political agreement on several files, from Mostar to Sejdić–Finci, in parallel to the initiative led by the U.S. Embassy for a constitutional reform of the Federal entity.

[2] Three further rounds of negotiations among political leaders were led together with Füle, in a castle near Prague in November 2013, and later in Sarajevo in the first months of 2014, also with the presence of the U.S. and the Venice Commission.