Gabriel Escobar, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, stated on Wednesday's briefing that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they’ve seen some steps toward greater functionality, and they’ve had an enormous success in the invitation for Bosnia and Herzegovina to become a candidate member for the European Union.

“And we’ll continue to work with parties on the ground, political parties, civil society, and others to take advantage of that historic opportunity”, he said.

Asked what he would do different in Bosnia if he could travel to the past, Escobar said that it would be the stopping of war.

“If we could go far enough back to 1991, we should have done more to stop a bloody civil war. We should have done more throughout the war to support innocent victims. We should have done more to prevent some of the atrocities that happened. But once that happened, Dayton was the best opportunity we had to stop the bloodiest war in Europe since the Second World War”, he said.

Escobar emphasized that it is more important to look to the future.

“So Bosnia and Herzegovina, I am consistently encouraged by the quality of the new generation of leaders who are willing to take advantage of the historic opportunity to move Bosnia and Herzegovina into Europe as a full and respected member of the Euro-Atlantic community. And I think that should be the point, that looking forward, once we get a new generation of leaders, Bosnia and Herzegovina will thrive”, he said.