Bosnian leaders need to start working on reforms and gain stronger support of civil society, European Union's (EU) ambassador in Bosnia and Herzegovina Johann Sattler said on Wednesday, speaking of the priorities during the six-month period of Croatia's EU Presidency.
“There is a lot of goodwill when it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina, I would even say facilitation, and we were finally in a situation to overcome this too long 14-month period of the stalemate in the state-level government formation,” Head of the EU Delegation and EU Special Representative was quoted as saying.
“It is possible for Bosnia and Herzegovina to move forward, we must not give up. Your leaders need to pull up their sleeves, start engaging on reforms and achieve much stronger buy-in from civil society, as with rule of law and environment,” he said, noting that he met the European Commission's representatives in Brussels last week, with whom he discussed Bosnia.
There are three priorities for this year, he emphasised, first of which includes changes in work of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), a state-level body that appoints and disciplines judicial officials, with the accent on the asset declarations the officials need to submit.
“What we have today, the situation we are facing, is not the result of events from the last two, five or six years, but from the past 20 years, of one gradual deterioration of the system. But, I am still an optimist,” Sattler was quoted as saying.
The second priority, according to him, will be the country's electoral legislation, with local elections in Mostar as a priority.
“If elections are not held in Mostar, this will throw a shadow on the whole election process that will be held at the local level. I am an optimist, I hope that the moment will finally come this year when elections will take place in every corner of this country,” he underlined.
The third priority, the ambassador said, concerns Bosnia's economic capacities for the EU membership.
“We launched one very important reform, important for citizens. It is healthcare reform. A lot of money is invested in healthcare and the service they get in return is not adequate. We work on the improvement of the business environment in Bosnia, to make the country more attractive to investors,” he said, adding that emigration of young people and the air pollution also pose serious issues that need to be tackled.
“When I took office in September last year I was a moderate optimist. I said I believed it was possible to make progress in Bosnia both inside and outside. I know there has been a lot of scepticism, I remember my first press conference and all the scepticism I heard from media representatives. I am pleased to see that we have made certain steps. There was agreement on security sector reform, on NATO and other reforms,” Sattler recalled.
