Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic met on Friday with Dragan Covic, the First Deputy Speaker of the BiH Parliament’s House of Peoples and leader of the Croati Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) party.

Referring to the recent visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Plenkovic expressed his satisfaction with the previous progress in the implementation of reforms undertaken by the Council of Ministers led by Borjan Kristo (HDZ BiH).

Ahead of the preparation of the European Commission's new report on BiH, he called on all political actors in the country to invest additional efforts in adopting the necessary laws, with the aim of opening accession negotiations at the European Council meeting in March. Croatia continues to provide full political and technical support to BiH in this process, he said.

Regarding the Southern Gas Interconnection project, the two highlighted the importance of this project for BiH’s energy security and diversification. Croatia is ready to support this project, which would deliver gas from the LNG terminal on Krk to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Plenkovic and Covic agreed that it is necessary to continue the talks to reach an agreement regarding the modalities of the implementation of the project in the country in the interest of all interested parties. In this regard, Croatia supports Dragan Covic's position on the need to respect the interests of the Croat people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.