Media: New candidates for High Representative in BiH could be Maurizio Massari and Peter Sorensen

New candidates for the position of High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) may include Italy's Maurizio Massari and Denmark's Peter Sorensen, according to the Sarajevo-based portal Raport, citing unnamed diplomatic sources. This development follows the departure of Christian Schmidt from the role.

The Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) convened but could not reach an agreement on who will succeed Schmidt. Previously, Italy's Antonio Zanardi Landi, reportedly backed by the United States, and Rene Trokaz, proposed by France, Britain, and Germany, were considered leading candidates.

In the interim, the PIC Steering Board appointed Luis F. Cardona, the first Deputy High Representative and Brčko Supervisor, as the acting High Representative. An announcement for the new High Representative is anticipated by July 14.

Massari is described as a career Italian diplomat with over four decades of experience in international relations, recently serving as Italy's permanent representative to the United Nations. Sorensen has a history in the region, having been a political advisor to the European Community Monitoring Mission in former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. He later served as the legal advisor to the High Representative in BiH in 1997 and headed the EU Delegation and served as the EU Special Representative in BiH from 2011 to 2014. Sorensen currently holds the position of EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue.