The Steering Committee of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) began its session in Sarajevo today and tomorrow, and one of the key topics of the two-day session will be the election of a new High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who should succeed Christian Schmidt, who resigned as High Representative in May.

The session of the PIC Board of Directors is held in the building of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Member countries will consider several candidates for the post of High Representative, and the choice does not require consensus among the members of the PIC Board of Directors.

A candidate can be elected if he receives the necessary support from the member states, while the consultation and decision-making process can be repeated until agreement is reached on one candidate.

The two-day session of the PIC is extremely important because it comes at a time when the future role of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, as well as the issue of using the Bonn powers that characterized the mandate of the current High Representative Christian Schmidt are being discussed.

The PIC board consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the European Union, the European Commission and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), represented by Turkey.

The Russian Federation is formally a member of the Board of Directors, but in July 2021 it informed the OHR that it would no longer participate in meetings chaired by the High Representative, while in February 2022 it announced the suspension of OHR funding.

The PIC session is being held at a time of intensified discussions on the future of international supervision over Bosnia and Herzegovina.