Europe and US on collision course over next high representative for Bosnia

Diplomats from around the world are due to meet in Sarajevo on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve a deep rift between the US and Europe over a top envoy appointment that could have a powerful influence on the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Disagreement has erupted over who should become the next high representative for the international community, a post with significant powers, in an overt test of political wills. The Trump administration is assertively pushing a business-driven agenda, potentially at the expense of Bosnia’s delicate postwar political balance. Ambassadors from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and the EU, as well as envoys from Canada, Japan and Turkey, are scheduled to meet in the Bosnian capital to make a second attempt to agree on a new high representative, after the first try broke up amid acrimony in early June. In the run-up to that meeting, the Trump administration had rattled European capitals by insisting that the current high representative , the German politician Christian Schmidt, be removed, and then reportedly reneging on an agreement that Schmidt stay on until expected Bosnian elections in October, for reasons of continuity and his personal dignity. US officials have demanded the departure of Bosnia’s international high representative, Christian Schmidt. …