The Kovačević Case Revisited - The ECtHR Grand Chamber May De-Block the Constitutional Impasse in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

On 20 March 2023 the Council of the European Union gave Bosnia and Hercegovina green light to start accession negotiations. However, despite this political endorsement, BiH must fulfill the conditionality criteria, including a series of six judgments by the ECtHR relating to the predetermined ethnic keys. The last case, Kovačević v. BiH, was referred to the Grand Chamber in December 2023. If the Court follows its previous case law, this should force the mono-ethnic political parties and their leaders as well as the EU institutions to insist on de-blocking the constitutional impasse for any realistic steps towards European integration.

Keywords

• BiH
• Bosnien
• ECHR
• ECtHR
• EU
• EU