The future of all Western Balkan countries is within the European Union, and the sooner this happens, the better it will be for both them and the EU, the Bosniak member of BiH’s tripartite Presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, told reporters in Slovenia on Wednesday.

Dzaferovic and his Croat colleague in the Presidency, Zeljko Komsic, are participating in the Bled Strategic Forum, while the Serb member of the institution refused to go.

The Bosniak Presidency member said that the future of Europe is being discussed at the Forum and that, as usual, participants said that the European Union is incomplete without Western Balkan countries.

“The future of BiH is in the European Union, the future of BiH is in the NATO alliance. We within BiH should do everything to implement all those reforms in order for the state to become a member of the European Union as soon as possible,” he said.

He also noted that EU officials have expressed the need for a more careful approach towards the issues in the country.

“The European Union as an association, as a community in which there will be strong economic development, in which freedoms will be respected, which will have a secure environment, is something that is the future of all of us,” he stressed.

However, he noted that BiH existed before the EU and that, the country would survive even if it never becomes a member, but that this is unlikely.

“So the issue of the connection between EU membership and the survival of BiH are things that cannot be connected. BiH is an internationally recognized state, it has its own territorial integrity and sovereignty and it will exist forever,” he said.

“But, the best thing for all of us in BiH and the region is to be a member of a wider association called the EU, a democratic association, and to be a member of a security association called NATO,” he concluded.