Schmidt Is Leaving Bosnia, and Europe Can't Even Agree on His Successor

Christian Schmidt, the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, is leaving soon - and Europe has again shown it can't even agree on its own candidate. The US State Department announced it expects Schmidt to leave in June and his successor to take over by the end of the month.

The problem is that there is no successor yet. The Peace Implementation Council (PIC) failed to reach a consensus at its meeting in Sarajevo on June 3 and 4. The favourite was the Italian candidate Antonio Zanardi Landi, but, as the American delegation announced, it was precisely the European divisions that blocked an agreement. "We expect Schmidt to leave in June and the new High Representative to take over by the end of the month," Washington said, adding that they are disappointed Europe failed to do its duty.

The US again stressed that it supports the territorial integrity of BiH and the Dayton Agreement. A new PIC meeting is scheduled for the end of June.

Thirty years after Dayton, one country in the Balkans still has a foreigner with the power to impose laws and overturn decisions - and that foreigner is now being replaced because those who appoint him can't agree among themselves. For a region that has waited decades for a "European future," this is a quiet, uncomfortable lesson: the same Europe that demands the Balkans be coherent and functional can't manage to agree itself when it needs to. Who is lecturing whom here?