Bosnia did not stop its EU integration process, as its institutions are moving forward with what they are supposed to do according to a set of priorities the country needs to meet which the European Commission (EC) published end of May, the head of Bosnia's Directorate for European Integrations told N1 on Thursday.

“We have begun the job which we were expected to do, the preparation of plans and the implementation of what the EC Opinion says. The 115 measures that the government levels need to introduce in the short term and the 14 priorities the European Commission expects Bosnia to resolve are very precisely defined,” Edin Dilberovic said.

But “everyone is waiting for something” in that process, he said, explaining that “we are either waiting for our elections, elections in the region, or elections in the European Commission.”

“It is not only up to Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also its surroundings. Regardless – the processes regarding the EU are moving forward,” he said.

He said that many politicians, analysts, experts and some EU representatives used to say that Bosnia is not ready for applying for membership, but that the country “passed that test.”

Bosnia and Herzegovina is “institutionally strong enough to respond to challenges,” he said.

He said that North Macedonia and Greece could serve as “politically important role models” for Bosnia, but added that the country is still lacking “political courage.”

Dilberovic explained that the EU demanded that Bosnia speaks to it “with one voice,” which resulted in the establishment of the Coordination Mechanism, which represents “an agreement between different government levels and politicians.”

“The Coordination Mechanism has produced this with the answers to the EC Questionnaire. In that sense, the mechanism successfully played its role,” he said.

The document the EC published includes 115 short-term measures and 14 long-term priority measures which include “democratization, rule of law, basic rights and a reform of the administration,” he said.

Dilberovic sent the message that the region should not wait for the European Union but go forward with reforms which are the only guarantor of its entry into the EU. He said that this is the only way to make the region a place where people will not emigrate from and that EU membership has no alternative.