Bosnia's Foreign Minister and leader of the People and Justice party Elmedin Konakovic believes that Bosnia and Herzegovina can get the green light to open accession talks with the European Union in March next year and that the ruling coalition at the state level can agree on the adoption of key laws in order to make it happen.

Speaking to N1, Konakovic commented on the latest proposal of changes to the Election Law, proposed by the opposition SDA party, which was discussed in a meeting of the parliamentary caucuses and the Central Election Commission on Wednesday. Although the agreement on this matter does not seem to be in sight, Konakovic deems that it is important to maintain talks.

According to him, the House of Representatives has to convene on Friday to discuss this matter, because “every attempt has an effect” and is a chance to see “who wants and who does not want substantial changes.”

He also commented on statements of his coalition partner Milorad Dodik, the leader of the SNSD party and the President of Bosnia's Republika Srpska entity, stressing that he is “playing with fire.”

“Dodik is playing with fire anytime he keeps talking about independence and is risking everything that Republika Srpska has, and that is the highest level of autonomy than any other region in Europe,” stressed Konakovic, expressing regret that the peace deal which ended the 1990s war in Bosnia and established its constitutional system gave the entities such huge competencies.

As for Dodik's secession threats, Konakovic said that Dodik knows very well this is leading to a “potential conflict.”

“If it is not a conflict then it is administrative loss of everything that Republika Srpska has,” he said.

Asked about a possible imposing of amendments to the electoral legislation announced by the international peace envoy, High Representative Christian Schmidt, he said it would be much better if such agreement is reached by local authorities and opposition.

“Schmidt is not intervening because he wants so, but is unblocking the things when they get blocked and politicioans do not want to reach agreements,” he stressed.

Speaking about Bosnia's EU path, he said it is hard to meet all at once all 14 priorities that the European Commission set before the country, noting that this is a proposal of Republika Srpska representatives who want “all or nothing.”

“It is good that EU saw what Bosnia and Herzegovina is, that the blockades coming from Republika Srpska are the only problem,” said Konakovic, whose political party is part of the ruling coalition in the Federation entity (FBiH).

However, he positively assessed the latest European Commission's progress report for BiH, saying that the progress was “evident” and that it was the best report in history of BiH.

“We got a conditional opening of the accession talks, I am convinced we can meet the part we are expected to do by March,” he stressed, adding that this means steps forward in a few segments such as the rule of law, where the Commission “lowered criteria.”

Asked if the EU set a precedent by giving the green light to Ukraine and Moldova for the accession talks, Konakovic replied that this was a new EU approach, adding that these two countries might be more advanced in terms of administration but they do not fully control their territories.

“The EU wants its entire space within its family more for itself than for us. This is a chance that Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot miss. It is true that the Netherlands and Germany were completely against the opening of negotiations, so we managed to get a conditional opening through diplomacy.. We will do everything, we will travel, we will lobby and we hope to get a successful solution. It's getting on a train that you can't get off of anymore,” he noted.