The Director for Europe in the EU Foreign Affairs Service, Angelina Eichhorst, held a meeting Wednesday morning with representatives of the state-level coalition and other BiH officials after which said that she sent a clear message to the representatives of the authorities from the Republika Srpska (RS) entity, but also that she is leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina with optimism because of the progress and messages that were addressed: "If the EU moves towards accelerated accession, do not leave BiH out."

Dodik said agreement would be easier with SDA, after meeting with EU officials

NEWS

12. 07. 2023 0

NEWS

12. 07. 2023 0

“A lot has been done in the past months and the EU welcomes the results of the work of the BiH Council of Ministers thus far. The EU believes that everyone should be listened to and we are at your disposal. I thanked Chairperson [Borjana] Kristo and her colleagues for all the efforts they made to solve the remaining laws that need to be adopted as well as further steps on the reform agenda. The coalition at the BiH level has worked in a constructive spirit so far, and the EU wants this to continue. We clearly emphasized that solutions should be found through political negotiations. We appealed to them to work on preserving a constructive spirit and emphasized that any unilateral moves and anything that undermines what has been done so far is absolutely unacceptable, as are unacceptable unconstitutional and illegal moves. The rule of law is key to the functioning of BiH, and I sent a very clear message to the representatives of the RS authorities,” Eichhorst said.

She pointed out that the EU expects BiH to fulfil 14 key priorities, which are a large-scale undertaking, but, absolutely achievable.

“It is a compass for improving the quality of life of citizens and progress on the European path because years of stagnation have made investments impossible, citizens are losing control, leaving this country, and we have repeated this many times, as we have repeated that unconstitutional actions are unacceptable. The European Union will always be ready to work on finding political solutions, to help, just as it is ready to draw the line when things go too far,” Eichhorst said.

She recalled that last year in June the President of the European Council gathered political representatives at a meeting in Brussels, saying “it was not easy at all, but an agreement was reached which served as the basis for the formation of the government after the October elections, which happened in record time at the level of BiH and lower levels.”

“I can assure you that this is not the same European Union from 28 years ago and we are working at an accelerated pace to strengthen our resilience, and unity, make further strides, and that is the European Union of today. We want to work on this with all partners of the Western Balkans, including Bosnia. At this morning's meeting, there were also encouraging messages, but it was also said that ‘if the EU has accelerated dynamics of the accession process, don’t let Bosnia and Herzegovina be left out’. This is a clear message that I take with me from BiH,” Eichhorst concluded.