Source:
https://balkaninsight.com/2024/01/18/us ... -pipeline/US Presses Bosnia Croat Leader to Stop Blocking Gas Pipeline
Secretary of State Blinken accuses Bosnian HDZ leader Dragan Covic of putting important natural gas pipeline with Croatia at risk – saying his 'obvious corruption and self-dealing could jeopardise Bosnia and Herzegovina's EU path'.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Bosnian Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic to put pressure on Bosnian Croat leader Dragan Covic to stop blocking construction of a gas pipeline between Bosnia and Croatia. In a letter made public on Wednesday, Blinken said that “continued delays in this critical project threaten its realisation”.
“Given this project is in the clear interest of your country and the region, I encourage you and others in your government to press HDZ Bosnia and Herzegovina leader Dragan Covic to end his obstruction on this matter,” the US Secretary added.
“We urge the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina House of Peoples to pass the law on the Southern Interconnection, which was crafted in consultation with international experts and represents a critical step toward permitting, financing, and constructing the pipeline,” Blinken said.
The same letter was sent to Croatia’s Foreign Minister, Goral Grlic-Radman.
The lower chamber of parliament in Bosnia’s larger entity, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, passed a law on building the Gas Interconnection between Croatia and Bosnia in December 2021. However, progress in the other chamber, the House of Peoples, has been blocked by Covic’s demands for the creation of a new company to build the pipeline and run the distribution.
In December last year, a proposal was submitted to the Federation’s parliament to establish a new company headquartered in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar, which would construct and manage the new gas pipeline. The proposal was crafted by Bosnian Croat officials.
The goal of the pipeline is to ensure energy diversification and end Bosnia’s dependence on Russian gas.
Blinken dismissed the idea of establishing a new company to manage the pipeline as “unviable”.
“Covic’s demands to form a new transmission system operator in the Federation are duplicative, economically unviable, and put the entire project at risk. Such obvious corruption and self-dealing could jeopardise Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU path,” Blinken added in the letter.
“BH-Gas, the Federation transmission system operator, must implement this project to ensure it delivers the energy security the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina badly needs,” he wrote.
This is not the first time the leader of the Bosnian arrm of the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, has come under US scrutiny over this project. In June last year, the US Ambassador to Bosnia, Michael Murphy, also accused Covic of obstructing the gas pipeline.
Washington-based journalist Ivica Puljic wrote on X (Twitter) that the letter “is a clear sign that Covic could face US sanctions.”
Currently, Bosnia relies on Russian natural gas, which reaches the country through the TurkStream pipeline via Turkey and Bulgaria. With the construction of the Eastern and Southern Interconnections, Bosnia would receive gas from Azerbaijan and Croatia and no longer depend on Russia.
