Bosnia and Herzegovina has travelled along a turbulent path, overcoming the burdens of the past such as the war in the early 1990s and the lack of any historical democratic experience. But there are also burdens in the present that include internal political disagreements over crucial issues such as the nature of the state, as well as the geopolitical complexities of the Western Balkans Region, to arrive to the point of obtaining the EU membership candidacy in the late 2022. While the local political elites often played the part of veto players, impeding state functionality in this process, most recently in a period prior to obtaining the candidacy, the international community has played the opposite role, actively engaging in the peacebuilding and state-building processes, and positively influencing the country’s progress on the European path. The paper explores this dynamic and looks at recent reforms in the rule of law area, in particularly the judiciary, in an attempt to provide a comprehensive picture of the forces at work that shape the country’s progress on the European path, and their respective rationales.
