October 17 (SeeNews) - The European Council said on Monday it regrets the unlawful holding of an entity-level referendum on the Statehood Day of Bosnia's Serb Republic in violation of a decision of the country's Constitutional Court.
"This referendum caused unnecessary tensions and challenged the rule of law," the Council said in a statement and urged the institutions to resolve this issue through the established legal processes, constructive dialogue and the existing constitutional framework.
The Serb Republic held a referendum on September 25 to decide whether Statehood Day should continue to be held on January 9 - the day of the entity's inception in 1992. A total of 99.81% of people voted to keep celebrating the holiday although it was declared unconstitutional by the country's Constitutional Court and, as such, discriminatory against the other two constituent peoples of the entity - the Bosniaks and Croats.
In a comment on the local elections held on October 2, the Council said they were conducted in an orderly manner, but added that the few irregularities and isolated violent incidents should be investigated by the country's authorities.
The Council also reiterated its unequivocal commitment to the EU perspective of the country as single, united and sovereign country.
It, however, stressed that Bosnia must continue focusing on the effective implementation of the Reform Agenda, and must demonstrate renewed efforts in particular regarding the functioning of the judiciary, the fight against corruption and organised crime as well as the fight against radicalisation and terrorism.
The Serb Republic is one of the two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In September, the European Union's General Affairs Council officially accepted Bosnia's membership bid and instructed the European Commission to give its assessment of the membership application.