Diplomats from the United States and Europe have failed to resolve their differences and agree on a new top international envoy to Bosnia-Herzegovina in a standoff that has become a transatlantic test of wills over influence in the Balkans.
A meeting in Sarajevo to choose a new high representative, a post with far-reaching powers, ended without compromise, in a row that has undermined Western cohesion in the region in the Trump era.
All that was agreed on Tuesday was that the current high representative, German politician Christian Schmidt, should end his term immediately as demanded by the US, with his American deputy taking over the role for two weeks pending a decision on a successor.
In a statement Tuesday evening, the governing body of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) said it was “committed to reaching an agreement on the selection of a new high representative as soon as possible, with the goal of completing the appointment no later than July 14, 2026.”
In recent months, US policy has prioritized seeking benefits for US firms, particularly one run by Donald Trump associates, while European powers have so far refused to give in to US demands despite Washington’s threats to cut off funding and international presence in Bosnia if its wishes are not met. The Balkan country has thus become a testing ground for Europe’s ability to unite and counter US Maga foreign policy in its own backyard.
The major-power rivalry could have far-reaching consequences for Bosnia itself, which functions as an international protectorate after a war that ended more than 30 years ago with a settlement that stopped the bloodshed but also stifled political and economic development.
The ambassadors of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the EU, as well as those of Canada, Japan and Turkey, met in the Bosnian capital in a second attempt to agree on a new high representative after a first attempt failed due to acrimony in early June.
Ahead of that first meeting, the Trump administration alarmed European capitals by pushing for the removal of the current high representative after he defied US wishes. Under a compromise with Germany, Schmidt was persuaded to resign but will remain in office until elections in Bosnia in October. In recent weeks, however, the Trump administration has abandoned that understanding and demanded Schmidt’s immediate departure.
Washington reached that goal on Tuesday. Kurt Bassuener, co-founder of the advocacy group Democratization Policy Council, said: “It was forced. It was not Schmidt’s resignation of his own accord. It was the Americans who kicked him out.”
However, the United States has not yet been able to succeed in choosing Schmidt’s successor. Lately, U.S. officials have launched an aggressive campaign to replace him with 76-year-old Italian diplomat Antonio Zanardi Landi, much to the bewilderment of most other members of the PIC’s governing council.
Lundy has no significant previous experience or apparent knowledge of Bosnia. He was once posted to Serbia, but until now he has not shown much interest in his southern neighbor.
Washington has not received a clear explanation for its abrupt maneuvers, but European officials in Sarajevo suspect they are closely linked to a new U.S. priority in the region: clearing the way for a $1 billion gas pipeline contract, the Southern Interconnector. The award was tentatively awarded to AAFS Infrastructure and Energy, a US company with minimal infrastructure experience but strong personal ties to Donald Trump.
Last month, the Trump administration announced a new Balkans policy, saying U.S. actions in the region would henceforth be guided by the need to seek “direct returns” for American companies instead of what it calls “overt institution-building.”
Jim O’Brien, a former US diplomat, writing on the website of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the statement “reflects what is already happening in the region under the second Trump administration” as “politically connected Americans seek to make money by weakening…international institutions.”
“This behavior undermines the peace that has been maintained for 30 years,” O’Brien said.
The pipeline deal was struck without a tender, prompting EU warnings that it could jeopardize Bosnia’s long-term European integration and trigger a confrontation that culminated in the row over Landi and the high representative position.
Lundy is the Ambassador of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the Vatican. He told the Guardian it would be “unwise for me to get into a heated debate” but said his manifesto of “key points and focal points”, which was distributed to members of the PIC’s governing council, was “entirely in line with the European position”.
Landi’s manifesto, seen by the Guardian and first published by Bosnian investigative journalism site Istraga, promises not to reverse decrees of previous high representatives, to consult the PIC before taking significant action, and not to unilaterally close the office of the high representative.
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London, Paris and Berlin were unconvinced by Lundy’s campaign and, as of Monday, had coalesced around French candidate René Trocas, France’s envoy to the Balkans. However, Europeans failed to take a united position in the face of US pressure on their capitals.
Germany has proposed Danish diplomat Peter Sorensen, the former EU envoy to Sarajevo, as a compromise candidate, according to sources in Sarajevo, while senior EU officials in Brussels have agreed with Washington that Schmidt’s deputy, US diplomat Louis Krishok, should temporarily take over as acting high representative, potentially leaving Washington in a stronger position if no agreement is reached on Schmidt’s successor in the next two weeks.
The fighting between the former allies underscored how the current reality in Bosnia is still shaped by the 1992-95 war, which killed 100,000 people, mostly Muslim Bosniaks, killed by far better armed Serb forces and, to a much lesser extent, Croats.
The Dayton peace agreement, brokered by the United States in late 1995, stopped the bloodshed but cemented the dominance of ethnic politics and the division of the country into two halves: the Bosnian-Croat federation and the Serb-ruled entity Republika Srpska.
An office of the High Representative was created with significant powers to oversee implementation of the Dayton Agreement and to help Bosnia move toward greater ethnic integration. This latest mission has largely failed as the country is more divided than ever, with Republika Srpska under the rule of Serbian separatist Milorad Dodik.
Successive high representatives, all European, have been reluctant to use their powers to shape Bosnia’s political system, but Schmidt intervened last year to undo Dodik’s secessionist moves that led to the Serbian leader’s overthrow last September.
For a moment, the hardliners’ 28-year hold on Republika Srpska appeared to be broken, but in the months that followed, the Trump administration came to Dodik’s aid, abruptly lifting sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on Dodik and his associates for corruption and “divisive ethno-nationalist rhetoric.”
In the following months, during which the son of US President Donald Trump Jr. visited the main city of the Republika Srpska Banja Luka, Dodik gave his approval for the construction of the Southern Interconnection pipeline. The remaining obstacles to the project were EU objections and the fact that about a third of the pipeline would be built on state property.
Ownership of Bosnia’s lands, forests and other rich resources is one of the pressing issues that had to be resolved after the war. Dodik insists that all Serb-controlled property should belong to the Republika Srpska, not the Bosnian state.
One possible scenario outlined by the official in Sarajevo was that, upon taking office, Landi would pass a special law dividing state property between the Republika Srpska and the Federation, bringing the pipeline a big step closer to reality. Lundi’s manifesto makes no mention of state ownership, but an AAFS company spokesman has reportedly informed leading Bosnian parliamentarians that the issue will be resolved if and when Lundi takes up the post of high representative.
The US has threatened to reconsider its “role in the current international presence” if Lundy is not given the job at Tuesday’s PIC meeting.