Louis Crishock.Image: ear
07/01/2026, 07:0507/01/2026, 07:05
The international community has not been able to agree on a successor to its resigned Bosnia representative, the German Christian Schmidt. The steering committee of the so-called Peace Implementation Council (PIC) only appointed the American career diplomat Louis Crishock as interim high representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, as the body announced after a meeting in Sarajevo.
A permanent solution should be found by July 14th, the statement continued. Crishock (55) previously served as Schmidt’s first deputy in the Sarajevo Office of the High Representative (OHR). He will take up the new role on Wednesday (July 1). The German politician, who comes from the CSU and was German Agriculture Minister, announced his resignation in May following American pressure. He has held the office since 2021.
According to media reports, Schmidt got in the way of the plans of the administration of US President Donald Trump, which envisages American businessmen linked to Trump building a pipeline to deliver American liquefied natural gas to Bosnia. Schmidt defended himself against the hasty transfer of the building land owned by the Bosnian state to US investors.
Around 50 countries and organizations that are committed to implementing the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995) are represented in the Peace Implementation Council. The European Union (EU) and its member states as well as the USA play the most active role.
High representative oversees peace
The Dayton Agreement ended a war that lasted from 1992 to 1995 and left more than 100,000 dead, in which Muslims (Bosniaks), Serbs and Croats faced off in the wake of the breakup of the old Yugoslavia. It also provided for the creation of the OHR, which is supposed to monitor the implementation of the peace and has extensive powers for this purpose.
In the current situation, the differences of opinion between the EU and the USA meant that the PIC was unable to agree on a permanent successor for Schmidt. It wasn’t just about the pipeline, but also about the future role of the OHR in Bosnia. In contrast to previous US administrations, the Trump administration wants to significantly reduce this, but the Europeans do not see the time for this yet.
Different favorites
When it comes to the question of Schmidt’s successor, Washington favors the Italian diplomat Antonio Zanardi Landi (76), who is said to be somewhat compliant with American interests in Bosnia. The Europeans, in turn, would prefer to see the Frenchman René Troccaz (66) at the head of the OHR. He was previously the Paris government’s special envoy for the Western Balkans. (sda/dpa)