Belgrade, 10 March 2016 - Over 20 years after the conclusion of the Dayton Peace Accords which put an end to the deadly conflict in the former Yugoslavia, the Western Balkans continue to grapple with deeply rooted regional tensions. At the same time, countries of the region are confronted with the consequences of the conflict in Iraq and Syria, which has drawn hundreds of foreign fighters out of the region while causing an increasing flow of refugees transiting through the Western Balkans.

These were the main findings a delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly brought back from its visit to Sarajevo and Belgrade on 7-10 March.

Political cleavages between the three main ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina remain prominent and may possibly deepen, hampering the country’s progress towards the EU and NATO membership. Bosnian political leaders both in Sarajevo and Banja Luka need to abandon narrow nationalistic rhetoric and focus on the implementation of much needed reforms, the delegation stressed throughout its visit.

Several local as well as international interlocutors argued that NATO could help unlock the current stalemate by following the EU’s example and revisiting the preconditions for furthering Bosnia and Herzegovina’s integration process. Namely, they urged Alliance leaders to lift or reinterpret the condition set in 2010 that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Membership Action Plan (MAP) will only be activated once the issue of registering the immovable defence property is resolved. Allowing Sarajevo to activate MAP would have a positive spill-over effect on other reform initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Assembly delegation heard.

NATO Parliamentarians also visited Belgrade on 9-10 March and met with the country’s senior leaders, including the Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic. The delegation was warned that dangerous ultra-nationalist tendencies in Serbia and elsewhere in the region are on the rise, but the current government is committed to its strategic goal of membership in the EU and hoping to consolidate support for its reform agenda in the upcoming early parliamentary elections scheduled for April. While not seeking membership in NATO, Serbia is developing a comprehensive co-operation with the Alliance, which it views as a factor of stability in the Western Balkans, particularly in Kosovo. Serbian leaders called on the representatives of the Euro-Atlantic community to exert pressure on Pristina in order to ensure the implementation of the 2013 Brussels agreement on normalisation, particularly regarding the establishment of the community of Serb municipalities.

Assembly members discussed Bosnia and Herzegovina’s efforts to prevent and deal with the radicalisation of part of its youth, hundreds of which have gone to fight alongside Daesh in Syria and Iraq. In Serbia, the delegation also visited a refugee centre in Adasevac near the border with Croatia. The centre was originally intended as a temporary shelter for refugees transiting through Serbia. However, some 340 refugees, including many children, mostly from Syria and Iraq, are now unable to move forward due to the recent closure of the borders by Serbia’s neighbours. The Serbian authorities, assisted by relevant international organisations and local NGOs, are doing their utmost to meet the needs of these people and to treat them with dignity. Last year, some 750,000 people from the Middle East crossed Serbia trying to reach wealthier EU countries.

The delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Sub-Committee on Democratic Governance consisted of some 21 member of parliament from 12 NATO member and 4 NATO partner countries. The delegation was led by the Sub-Committee Chairman and Assembly Vice President Lord Jopling (UK).