Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, Director for Western Balkans at the Directorate General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations said that Bosnian politicians must do their job and take responsibility for difficult decisions. During her visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, she met with state and entity justice ministries.

“We can’t do the local politicians job. Local politicians need to take responsibility for difficult decisions,” Calavera said.

The focus of the meeting was the judiciary in Bosnia. She noted both the positive and the negative aspects of the justice reform in Bosnia.

“Today we held a meeting on the structural dialogue. You know that the rule of law evaluation is important for the EU. In the past two months, Bosnia has made certain progress but the dialogue needs to continue because the EU still has Bosnia on its greylist. We noted progress in the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council’s (HJPC) activities. We welcome the Council’s activities that will lead to the revision of the Law on HJPC because they took into consideration our experts’ and the recommendations of the Venice Commission,” Calavera said.

Talking about the negative aspects, she said there is a lack of progress on the final version of the Law on the Courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“I am worried about the fact that the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) was not adopted in line with the Constitutional Court’s recommendations. I also appeal to the authorities to agree on the EUROPOL contact point. This is very important and urgent. We’ve lost a lot of time on pointless discussions,” she added.

The Director recalled that the upcoming summit between the Western Balkans countries and the EU in London will focus on 3 topics: cooperation, reconciliation, and security.

Bosnia’s Justice Minister Josip Grubesa said he spoke with Calavera about the HJPC’s initiative to amend the Law on HJPC. Based on the amendments, the authorities will decide which of the draft CPC’s will be adopted.