Europe and US on collision course over next high representative for Bosnia

Ambassadors from around the world will meet in Sarajevo in a second attempt to agree on a new high representative. Photograph: Getty Images/iStockphoto View image in fullscreen Ambassadors from around the world will meet in Sarajevo in a second attempt to agree on a new high representative. Photograph: Getty Images/iStockphoto Europe and US on collision course over next high representative for Bosnia Diplomats from around world meet in Sarajevo in second attempt to agree on top envoy, as US pushes for its choice Diplomats from around the world are due to meet in Sarajevo on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve a deep rift between the US and Europe over a top envoy appointment that could have a powerful influence on the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Disagreement has erupted over who should become the next high representative for the international community, a post with significant powers, in an overt test of political wills, with the Trump administration assertively pushing a business-driven agenda, potentially at the expense of Bosnia’s delicate postwar political balance. Ambassadors from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and the EU, as well as envoys from Canada, Japan and Turkey, are scheduled to meet in the Bosnian capital to make a second attempt to agree on a new high representative, after the first try broke up amid acrimony in early June. In the run-up to that meeting, the Trump administration had rattled European capitals by insisting that the current high representative , the German politician Christian Schmidt, be removed, and then reportedly reneging on an agreement that Schmidt stay on until expected Bosnian elections in October, for reasons of continuity and his personal dignity. View image in fullscreen US officials have demanded the departure of Bosnia’s international high representative, Christian Schmidt. Photograph: Antonio Bronić/Reuters In May, US officials demanded that Schmidt depart immediately, and began campaigning aggressively for a 76-year-old Italian diplomat, Antonio Zanardi Landi, to replace him, much to the bewilderment of most other members of the peace implementation council (PIC), whose steering board is due to convene on Tuesday. Landi has no significant previous experience or knowledge of Bosnia. In the past, he has expressed fondness for Serbia , where he was once posted as a diplomat, but he has not shown much interest in its neighbour. Why $1bn in Balkans energy contracts are going to an obscure company connected to Donald Trump Read more There has been no clear explanation from Washington for its abrupt manoeuvring, but European officials in Sarajevo suspect it is closely related to the new US priority in the region: to clear the way for a $1bn gas pipeline contract , the Southern Interconnection. This has been provisionally awarded to AAFS Infrastructure and Energy , a US-based company with minimal infrastructure experience but strong personal connections to Donald Trump . Last month, the Trump administr