Three influential MEPs on July 5 urged the EU to impose sanctions on Milorad Dodik, the secessionist leader of Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska, saying he and his followers systematically undermine the country and its European future and put at risk the peace and stability.

Dodik has already been sanctioned by the US and the UK for his moves towards secession, but that did not stop him from raising political tensions by urging Republika Srpska’s parliament to adopt legislation on the non-recognition of the authority and acts of the state-level constitutional court and of the international community’s high representative Christian Schmidt.

Bosnia comprises two autonomous entities – the Muslim-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska. Each of them has its own institutions and there are also state-level bodies.

In a joint statement, the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs David McAllister, standing rapporteur for Bosnia Paulo Rangel and the chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with Bosnia and Kosovo, Romeo Franz, condemned Republika Srpska’s move and backed Schmidt’s decision to use his Bonn powers to annul the legislation.

“We can no longer allow a brazen secessionist and his followers, including in the entity parliament, to systematically undermine the country and its future within Europe and put at risk peace and stability. We owe it to Bosnia & Herzegovina, its citizens, the region and ourselves,” the MEPs wrote.

The three MEPs said that the EU’s credibility is at stake and that the bloc cannot just verbally align with Schmidt but has to back him with its own initiatives.

“[I]n light of the utterly provocative reactions of President Dodik and other leading Republika Srpska officials to these decisions, additional action by the European Union is urgently needed. The European Parliament has repeatedly called on the Council to move beyond verbal statements and take specific, targeted action against those who continue to deliberately and systematically undermine Bosnia and Herzegovina's constitutional and territorial order in words and deeds. It is high time for the EU and its member states to finally impose targeted sanctions on Milorad Dodik - who is already under US and UK sanctions - and his allies, if necessary on a bilateral level,” they added.