EU Voices Concern over Bosnian Serb Republic's Decision To Leave Joint Power Transmission Co with Federation

The Serb Republic is one of the two autonomous parts forming war-divided Bosnia, and the other is the Muslim-Croat Federation. The two parts have separate power grids served by three power utilities - Elektroprivreda RS in the Serb Republic, and Elektroprivreda BiH and Elektroprivreda HZ HB in the Federation. As part of a EU-sponsored plan to reform Bosnia’s power sector, the two governments agreed last year to form a single transmission firm, Elektroprenos BiH.

But the Serb Republic government decided at its meeting on Thursday to form its own power transmission company on the grounds of failure to agree with the Federation the terms of the joint company’s operation and ownership structure. It said in a statement all possibilities for overcoming the differences have been exhausted.

“Ambassador Dimitris Kourkoulas, Head of Delegation of the European Commission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, expressed his deep concern over yesterday's media reports on the RS [Serb Republic] Government's intention to withdraw from the Elektroprenos BiH,” Kourkoulas said in a statement.
 
“This, if confirmed, would undermine the achieved reforms in the electricity sector that Bosnia was able to implement with the substantial technical and financial assistance of the EU and other donors. It would also be a step back in the context of the Stabilisation and Association process,” he said.

“Furthermore, such decision would put at risk the integration of Bosnia in the regional and EU electricity markets,” Kourkoulas added.

Bosnia signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in December 2007. The agreement is the first formal pact of the Balkan country with the bloc and is generally the first step to membership.