#Bosnia will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Oct. 7, even though rival ethnic leaders have yet to agree on voting rules for the upper house of the federal Parliament. 🇧🇦

Voters will choose Croat, Serb and Bosniak members of the tripartite presidency and elect the lower house. The dispute on the upper house has both the #EU and the country's Election Commission worried that Bosnia risks a constitutional crisis. 🇪🇺

🇧🇦 #Bosnia should do more to organize shelter for migrants before the arrival of winter, including for hundreds sleeping rough in towns near the Croatian border, according to the #UN refugee agency.

🇭🇷 Several thousand migrants remain in Bosnia after #Croatia tightened its borders, with more people arriving daily, crossing illegally from #Serbia - and many are sleeping rough. The #UNHCR said that the key challenge will be "preparing for winter".

🇧🇦 Voters in #Bosnia go to the polls today to decide if their country will pursue a path toward European Union membership and #NATO integration or sink deeper into ethnic strife and further fragmentation.

🗳 More than two decades after a war in which 100,000 died, leading #Serb, #Croat and Muslim Bosniak parties are campaigning on nationalist tickets, reviving wartime pledges in manifestos that fail to offer any clear economic or political visions.

🇧🇦 53% of voters took part in presidential and parliamentary elections in #Bosnia, electing the tripartite inter-ethnic presidency, consisting of a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb, and parliament’s lower house. The results, coupled with internal tensions, could trigger a political #crisis in the country.

🇷🇺 #Russia-backed candidate, separatist and Serb nationalist #Dodik was elected to the Serb seat in the triumvirate presidency. The candidate of the largest Muslim Bosniak party, Dzaferovic, has won the Bosniak seat, with moderate Komsic winning the Croat seat.

🇧🇦 #Bosnia's entity government has adopted a request for the legalisation of same-sex marriages and will form an inter-ministerial working group to grant rights to gay couples on its portion of the country's territory.

🏳️‍🌈 The working group will explore regulations which would allow #LGBT couples to realise their rights stemming from the European Human Rights Convention, as well as try to follow in the #EU's footsteps. "We take seriously everything we face on our EU path," entity PM #Novalic noted.

🇧🇦 #Bosnia's new tripartite presidency have been sworn in today, but rivalry looms between the pro-Russian Serb nationalist who wants the army dismantled, the pro-#NATO Croat and the Bosniak supporter of a multi-ethnic republic.

🇪🇺 Though all are in favour of an #EU membership bid, their different views of Bosnia’s place in the world seem certain to block decision-making. The presidency is responsible for drawing up and conducting foreign policy.

🇽🇰 #Kosovo has raised customs tariffs on Serbian and Bosnian goods from 10 to 100%, after #Serbia and #Bosnia blocked #Pristina from joining Interpol. The EU was harshly critical of Kosovo's decision.

🇪🇺 The three countries, along with #Albania, #Montenegro and #Moldavia, are part of CEFTA, a free trade area set up to harmonise their economies with the #EU. Foreign policy chief #Mogherini said Kosovo was violating #CEFTA as well as "the spirit" of its association agreement with #Brussels.

🇧🇦 Happy Statehood day, Federation of #Bosnia and Herzegovina!

🥋 Did you know? The town of #Mostar hosts a statue of Bruce Lee, representing the fight against ethnic divisions. The reason for this is that, despite the many ethnic differences, “one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee.”. Find out more ⬇️

https://bit.ly/2P0VjUg

🇧🇦 The #USA supports #Bosnia’s ambition to join NATO, a senior U.S. official said, dismissing Bosnian Serb objections and adding #Washington would react strongly to any threat to the stability of the country.

🇪🇺 Bosnia has long proclaimed integration with #NATO and the #EU to be strategic goals. But the pro-Russian leader of Bosnia’s autonomous Serb region, Milorad #Dodik, has called for the country to remain neutral and stay out of the military alliance.

🇽🇰 #Kosovo has raised tariffs on a second layer of imports from Serbia, stepping up pressure on #Belgrade to end a campaign to persuade other countries to withdraw recognition from its former province.

🇪🇺 Tariffs have been raised from 10 to 100% on several industrial and locally made products from #Serbia and #Bosnia. The #EU said the move was in clear violation of the Central European Free Trade Agreement.

🇧🇦 #Bosnia and Herzegovina's main parties have agreed on how to divide ministries, partially ending the deadlock months after #election.

🗳 The main disagreement now remains over the decision to join #NATO, with Bosniak and Bosnian Croats supporting #membership, and Bosnian Serbs opposing it.

🇧🇦 #Bosnia’s rival Serb, Croat and Bosniak leaders have agreed to form a central government 10 months after the general #election, reaching a compromise about NATO integration, a key stumbling block.

🌐 Under the agreement, the government will “promote relations with #NATO without prejudicing a future decision about the membership of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

🇧🇦 Another attempt by #Bosnia’s tripartite presidency to break the political deadlock and form a government, 10 months after the last #elections, has failed.

🌐 This is due to Bosnian Serb leaders strongly opposing joining #NATO, something the Bosniak and Croat members of the presidency advocate.

🇮🇹 The presidents of #Italy and #Montenegro have ceremonially turned on an undersea power cable connecting the two countries via the Adriatic sea.

🇲🇪 The 423km long cable connects the electricity systems of Italy, Montenegro, #Serbia, #Bosnia and Herzegovina and #Romania and cost 1,15 billion euros.

🇧🇦 #Bosnia has named a Serb economist as PM after a compromise between its Serb, Croat and Muslim co-presidents, ending a 13-month deadlock since the elections.

🛡 The issue of contention was #NATO. While the Croat and Bosniak Muslim leaders favour membership, its Serb community has close ties with #Russia and opposes joining.

🇧🇦#Bosnia's parliament has endorsed compromise candidate Tegeltija as the new prime minister, ending 13 months of deadlock.

🇪🇺 Tegeltija is a centre-left Serb economist. He has vowed to push ahead with #EU and #NATO integration, and to resume talks with the #IMF.

🇧🇦 #Bosnia's main Bosniak and Croat parties have struck a historic deal to share government ofthe ethnically-divided city of #Mostar.

🗳 The deal will pave the way for Mostar's first local #elections since 2008, as well as for a comprehensive settlement on electoral reform.

🇷🇺 #Russia has warned Bosnia that getting closer to NATO membership would be an "act of hostility" and would "necessarily have consequences."

🇧🇦 #Bosnia has been re-evaluating its relationships with #NATO, a move which #Moscow sees as "picking sides" in the current Russian confrontation with the West.

🇧🇦 In #Bosnia and Herzegovina's general #election, Denis Bećirović, a candidate of the opposition, Željko Komšić and Željka Cvijanović have been elected to the tripartite presidency.

📝 Bosnia's international peace overseer, the Office of the High Representative, imposed changes to the election #law to prevent the government blockades.

🇧🇦 EU ministers have endorsed giving candidate status to #Bosnia, following the #Commission's recommendation.

🇪🇺 While largely symbolic, it is seen by #EU ministers as not only a boost to Bosnian hopes, but "a strong signal to the Western Balkans".