The thesis deals with the European Union’s (EU) performance towards the Office of the High
Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Hercegovina (BiH). It is prompted by the incompatibility
between the HR’s two decisions, made in October 2022 and April 2023, and the EU’s priorities
for BiH. The EU’s performance is analyzed using a conceptual framework designed for assessing
the performance of international organizations, with a particular focus on the process dimension,
including output, effectiveness, and relevance. Three methods are employed: semi-structured elite
interviews (with six employees of the EU Delegation to BiH and OHR), content analysis, and
discourse analysis of 11 publicly available interviews, speeches, and reports from HR Schmidt.
The findings suggest that the EU’s performance is characterized by a need to balance its principles
with the perspectives of the OHR and other members of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC)
Steering Board. The EU is identified as a cooperative, tolerant, and principle-driven actor, but its
performance is influenced by its institutional complexity, the diversity of interests within the
international community, and developments in the domestic political landscape. This thesis
contributes to a broader understanding of the EU’s capacity to operate within other international
organizations by analyzing its role in an institution with a specific mandate (OHR), situated in a
local context where the EU wields significant influence, particularly given BiH's status as an EU
candidate country.
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