Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated two prominent officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14033. This OFAC action, the third taken under E.O. 14033, targets Marinko Cavara, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina President, and Alen Seranic, the Republika Srpska Minister of Health and Social Welfare, who have threatened the stability of the region by undermining the Dayton Peace Accords and democratic processes or institutions. Marinko Cavara (Cavara), the FBiH President, is responsible for nominating judges to the FBiH Constitutional Court. Since 2019, Cavara has refused to nominate judges from lists of candidates provided by the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council to fill vacancies on the Court. By refusing to proceed with these nominations, Cavara has blocked the function of the Court’s Vital National Interest (VNI) panel, a body of a certain number and composition of FBiH Constitutional Court judges created by 2002 amendments to the FBiH Constitution by the High Representative for BiH. The VNI Panel is intended to address key issues raised by delegates in the FBiH House of Peoples. It plays a crucial role in the constitutional operation of the FBiH, and its existence is necessary for the fulfilment of the FBiH’s democratic functions. Through his inaction, Cavara has held hostage the function of the VNI panel to further his and his party’s political interests.
Cavara was designated for being responsible for or complicit in, or for having directly or indirectly engaged in, a violation of or an act that has obstructed or threatened the implementation of any regional security, peace, cooperation, or mutual recognition agreement or framework or accountability mechanism related to the Western Balkans, including the Prespa Agreement of 2018; the Ohrid Framework Agreement of 2001; United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244; the Dayton Accords; the Conclusions of the Peace Implementation Conference Council held in London in December 1995, including the decisions or conclusions of the High Representative, the Peace Implementation Council, or its Steering Board; or the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or, with respect to the former Yugoslavia, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
Cavara was additionally designated for being responsible for or complicit in, or for having directly or indirectly engaged in, actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in the Western Balkans.
Executive Order 14033 Blocking Property and Suspending Entry into the United States of Certain Persons Contributing to the Destabilizing Situation in the Western Balkans
Regime
OFAC country specific
Target State
Western Balkans
Measures
Blocking Property, Suspending Entry
Official Information
On June 8, 2021, pursuant to, inter alia, IEEPA, the President issued E.O. 14033. In E.O. 14033, the President expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in E.O. 13219, as amended in E.O. 13304, finding that the situation in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Albania (the Western Balkans), over the past two decades, including the undermining of post-war agreements and institutions following the breakup of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as widespread corruption within various governments and institutions in the Western Balkans, stymies progress toward effective and democratic governance and full integration into transatlantic institutions, and thereby constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.
