"BiH (Bosnia) has missed a hard-gained opportunity to initiate the important process of modifying the constitution in time for it to be applied in the October elections. The outcome of last night's vote sends a negative signal to Europe, to the US and to the International Community in general," said the High Representative adding that "most of all, this is a loss for BiH".
"I and other members of the International Community have been personally involved in this process. We have sought to impress on members of parliament the importance of the proposed amendments. The political parties, public opinion and members of parliament were all perfectly clear that the International Community was united in standing behind this project. The proposed amendments were and remain necessary in order to start the vital process of strengthening governance in this country. Those who brought this package to failure must reflect on the consequences of their actions," the German added.
According to the press release, "BiH now needs time to reflect on last night's outcome and then agree on how to move forward. The need to modify the BiH Constitution will not go away. It is an issue that will have to be re-visited - in order to better equip BiH for EU integration, and better equip government to serve its citizens."
The US Ambassador to Bosnia, Douglas McElhaney, said that with the failure to adopt the changes, Bosnia had sent a negative message to NATO and the European Union. He, also, did not rule out a possibility for the renewal of the negotiations on new amendments.
All the prominent Croat political parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina, except the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BiH), on Thursday hailed the rejection of the draft constitutional amendments in the state parliament.
After a two-day heated debate, the House of Representatives late last night failed to adopt the amendments which were agreed on by several parliamentary parties at the mediation of the United States.
The HDZ BiH is the only Croat party whose leader Dragan Covic signed the agreement on constitutional changes. However, the state parliament failed to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to adopt changes to the constitution which was based on the 1995 Dayton peace accords.
The spokesman for the HDZ BiH said this party was disappointed with the outcome of the voting as it "presents a step backward".
On the other hand, the leaders of the New Croat Initiative (NHI) and the newly-established HDZ 1990 were satisfied with the rejection, as they fear that if adopted, the draft changes would have worsened the position of the Croat people in Bosnia.
Commenting on the disappointment of foreign diplomats, NHI leader Kresimir Zubak said that the idea of reaching new constitutional changes was not discarded and that after "the October (general) elections, talks on constitutional reforms can be renewed".