Paulo Rangel
"It is not impossible"

Paulo Rangel: Constituent peoples and civic rights are not incompatible; EU is also based on constitutivity

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The rapporteur of the European Parliament for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portuguese MEP Paulo Rangel, said that the existence of constituent peoples in the BiH Constitution does not contradict the realization of the rights of citizens and minorities, stating that it is possible to reconcile the two principles through constitutional and electoral reform in order to preserve peace, stability and progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Few European officials have described the meaning of the constituent peoples in such a simple way and rejected its denial, which often comes from ignorance or from a strong lobbying network that supports the views of Bosniak parties, Večernji List BiH reports.

"I do not understand why some of us say that there is a contradiction between respecting the rights of all citizens and acknowledging the existence of the constituent peoples. By the way, in these negotiations on the electoral law, that till now failed, there were some ways of solving these tension, between these two principles. So, to acknowledge that there are three constituent peoples should not prevent anyone to be entitled to vote, because we can have formulations, legal and constitutional ones, where we include everybody without also leaving this constitutional principle of Bosnia and Hercegovina", Rangel underlined during yesterday's debate in the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET).

He went a step further, arguing that in the EU institutions there is a reconciliation between the principles of constituent peoples (identity) and the representation of citizens.

"I have to say that we, that are members of the European Union, we believe in this equality of 'one person-one vote', but also of the identity of Member States. That is why when you have the voting rules in the Council or when you have the proportionality in the Parliament you acknowledge that the European Union also has constituent peoples and respects the right of each and every one, each one of the citizens, to be entitled to have all fundamental rights, including the voting right", Rangel said. None of the present AFET members contradicted these arguments.

He claims that it is possible to make an arrangement in BiH that will fulfill the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.

"It is not impossible. Quite the contrary, it is possible to reconcile these two principles. By the way, if we look very carefully at the jurisprudence both of the European Court and that of the BiH Constitutional Court we will see that this is compatible. It is a matter of very, very delicate constitutional work, but we can do it and we should preserve these two principles as pillars that can give peace, stability and prosperity to the people of Bosnia and Hercegovina, whatever is their ethnic, religious background. This is something where I think we should work without prejudgments and without ideology and trying to really build at the same time peaceful but functional political framework", said the MEP, who comes from the ranks of the Social Democrats.

In the report, Rangel points out that BiH embodies the diversity of the EU, which is built on reconciliation, coexistence and co-operation. He called for meeting 14 criteria in order for BiH to gain EU candidate status.

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