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to carry out for signinig the SAA named as priorities for action, were the compliance with existing conditionality
and international obligation, such as, more effective governance; more effective public administration; European
integration; effective human rights revisions; effective Judiciary; tacling crime, especially organized crime; budget
practice; reliable statistics; consistend trade polic; integrated energy market; BiH single economic space and public
broadcasting (European Comission).
To put it briefly, two points are quite evident in the list of the conditions to be fulfilled by BiH for signing the
Stability and Association Agreement and for having a membership in EU in the long run. These are removal of
wartime divisions through the establishment of common and effective Bosnian intitutes, and liberation from
semi-protectorate status. In other words, the local powers at the level of the Entites and the cantons had to be
transferred to the centre. For this, a strong decentralized structure of the Dayton Constitution had to be reformed.
This would require the existence of a strong political will. But, the overly fragmented nature of politics in Bosnia
and reluctance on the subject of local political actors was a major obstacle to realization of this objective. On the
other hand, the existence of the Office of the High Representative the highest authority in the implementing the
Dayton Peace Agreement without democratic legitimacy and judicial accountability was contrary to the terms of
the EU membership as the membership is open only to With the expectation that EU Conditionality will work in
Bosnia and solve the post-war economic, political and legal problems, EU has decided to get itself involved in this
complicated and long lasting duty in Bosnia. Thus, since 2002, EU has established some bodies and instruments
to accelerate the reform process in Bosnia.
In 2002 OHR was given the additional title of EU Special Representative by the European Union’s General Affairs
Council (GAC) and EU took more responsibilities in DPA implementations. Between 2002 and 2011 the High
Representative(HR) also served as EU Special Representative (EUSR). During this period the political focus in
BiH would shift from Dayton implementation to EU integration process. By the decision of European Union to
strengthen its policy and presence in the country through a single reinforced Union representative, Peter Soresen
was appointed by the Decision of the as EUSR and also Head of EU Delegation in BiH.
In 2003 EU took over the UN police monitoring and advisory mission. The inception of and decision on the EU
police mission (EUPM) took place in parallel with the appointment of the OHR with an additional title of EUSR
for Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2002. EU police mission (EUPM) in BiH, was the first-ever European Security
and Defence Policy operation conceptualised during 2002 and launched in 2003. Launching of the EUPM in BiH
confirmed the increasing role of the EU as the main security provider in the region (EUPM).
In 2004, the EU also undertook the role of leading military actor in BiH. European Force Althea (EUFOR Althea)
was deployed in the BiH to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement. It replaced the NATO-
led SFOR in late 2004 (Keane, 2004).
Considering that BiH is far from fulfilling the conditions for EU conditionality at that time, the EU’s commit-
ment on behalf of BiH at such an early stage has brought a new dependency for BiH in a way that contradicts the
principle of sovereignty for EU membership. Although it was attempted for reducing the use of the Bonn Powers
in order to transfer the ownership of Bosnia to the Bosnian politicians as soon as possible, the result has been
disappointing.
Paddy Ashdown who was named as the first European Special Representative followed a policy of gradual reduc-
tion of the use of the Bonn Powers and he did not hesitate to use the Bonn powers to advance europeanisation
when the Dayton Peace Agreement was jeopardized by the local politicians. Through this policy he had many suc-
cesses during his time as High Representative, including strengthening the central state institutions, bringing in
statewide legal bodies such as State Investigation and Protection Agency and bringing the two ethnic armies under
a central civilian command. As a result of these positive developments, international community has seemed
convinced enough about that the country was in the last stages of normalization and it changed its policy in BiH
in 2005. With a significant change in the international community in BiH policy in 2005, the top-down interven-
tionist role of the high representative which is defined by the Bonn powers was replaced by role of a consultant,
and local political actors were given more responsibility. Thus Ashdown’s sucessor, Christian Schwartz-Schilling