American lobbyists in Brussels advocate for a complete restructuring of Bosnia and Herzegovina, openly calling for a revision of the Dayton Agreement and the establishment of a Croatian entity. Max Primorac attended the meetings, and Croatian MEP Zovko defends her role as a contact person.
Representatives of the powerful American Heritage Foundation, an organization considered the ideological backbone of the "Project 2025" initiative for the Trump administration, have been lobbying members of the European Parliament with a clear goal: a complete restructuring of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the establishment of a third, Croatian entity.
According to data from the Transparency International register, a meeting was held in Brussels on March 23, 2026, between Heritage Foundation representative Paul McCarthy and Portuguese MEP António Tânger Corrêa, vice-president of the radical right-wing group "Patriots for Europe." The sole topic was the situation in BiH. A month earlier, Corrêa had also met in Brussels with Max Primorac, a Heritage Foundation researcher and HDZ lobbyist, known for his radical views on the alleged "Islamist threat" in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Following the talks with McCarthy, Corrêa's office stated that a new approach to Bosnia and Herzegovina is necessary. "A new approach to Bosnia and Herzegovina is needed. Revising the framework established by the Dayton Peace Agreement should be a priority. Thirty years after the Agreement, such thinking is necessary given the profound changes in the international environment," the investigative media outlet Detektor reported.
Corrêa had already criticized the EU reports on BiH from 2023 and 2024 in July 2025, warning of "growing Islamization in parts of the Federation." In the 2025 European Parliament report, he proposed deleting the text calling on the authorities of Republika Srpska to respect the Constitutional Court of BiH, as well as sections condemning the secessionist intentions of the RS leadership. He also proposed removing references to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the context of EU foreign policy and sanctions against Russia.
The direct link between the Heritage Foundation and the idea of a Croatian unit in BiH was also confirmed in April 2026, when TradFest was held in Zagreb, organized by the Foundation. One of the main topics was "Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Failed State and the Necessity of a Third Croatian Entity," and during the panel, a concrete map dividing BiH into three republics-Serb, Croat, and Bosniak-Muslim-was presented.
In February 2026, Heritage published an analysis by Max Primorac titled "An Islamist State on NATO's Border." It claims that Muslims in BiH refuse political equality with Serbs and Croats and that Sarajevo should "be wise and stop oppressing its Christian neighbors." A year earlier, Heritage had declared the Office of the High Representative (OHR) the main cause of BiH's political dysfunction and an "imperial administrator."
European media such as Der Spiegel and Sweden's Aftonbladet report that Heritage acts as a broker pushing the European People's Party (EPP) towards more right-wing positions. Croatian MEP Željana Zovko, vice-president of the EPP group, is mentioned as the key figure who created the link between the Heritage Foundation and the EPP.
Zovko has publicly met with Heritage representatives on several occasions, including Max Primorac. As Detektor writes, after these meetings, Primorac often "activated" and published controversial texts and analyses about BiH. Zovko herself explained to Detektor: "I advocate for the full implementation and respect of the spirit of the Dayton Agreement, which is currently not being respected. If it were, Croats would have their own member of the Presidency and a fair election law. I am the contact person for Congress and all foundations. My duty is to maintain contacts with all relevant interlocutors in Washington and to open doors on behalf of EPP diplomacy."
Detektor notes that cooperation between Brussels and Washington, including topics such as the Balkans, defense, and fossil fuels, has noticeably accelerated over the past two years.
