The Mostar Joint Action, 1994: Agenda-Setting, Decision-Making and Implementation

Abstract

The Yugoslav conflict and its complexity challenged the international community to develop new strategies of conflict management and resolution, such as that evidenced by the unique European Union (EU) Administration in the central Bosnian municipality of Mostar. The Washington Peace Agreement of 18 March 1994, which forged a federation between the Bosnian Croats and Muslims, paved the way for the European Union’s key new task. Following an invitation extended to the EU by the parties who signed the Washington Agreement, the Council formally decided on 16 May 1994 to carry out a major Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) Joint action under the terms of Article J3 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) to support the administration of the City of Mostar. On 23 July 1994 the European Union Administration of Mostar (EUAM) was established in the city, which had been heavily affected by the war. The EUAM’s initial mandate was given for a maximum period of two years, with the aim of overcoming the city’s ethnic division between Muslim Bosnians and Croats through a process of reconstruction and political and social reunification. This meant strengthening the implementation process of the newly created Muslim-Croat Federation.

The following chapter heavily relies on Sarah Reichel’s excellent study of the European Union Administration of Mostar (EUAM) prepared for the Directorate General for External Political Relations of the European Commission. Factual information relating to the EUAM is liberally drawn from Sarah Reichel’s descriptive-factual piece on the EU Administration of Mostar: Sarah Reichel, ‘The European Union Administration of Mostar’, Report Prepared for DG1A, External Political Relations, Commission of the European Union, 1997c.