There are proposals from Croat officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina that cantons in the Federation should join to form regions. These are clever proposals that should be taken into consideration, Schwarz-Schilling said in an interview with Federation Television on Monday evening.
It was the first time since the end of the war in 1995 that a prominent international official had announced the possibility of territorial reorganisation of the Federation, which constitutes 51 per cent of Bosnia-Herzegovina under the Dayton peace agreement, the television said.
Schwarz-Schilling did not specify whether they were ideas about joining Croat-majority cantons and Bosniak-majority cantons to form separate regions or about integration based on principles other than the ethnic one.
Under the Dayton agreement, the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina was divided into ten cantons - five with a Bosniak majority, three with a Croat majority, and two with ethnically mixed populations.