Democratic Action Party (SDA) leader Bakir Izetbegovic rejected the invitation of the European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, to a meeting in a format that would include the leaders of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) and Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH), Milorad Dodik and Dragan Covic.

Instead, he will hold a bilateral meeting with Varhelyi next week, where they will discuss the implementation of 14 key priorities from the European Commission's Opinion on Bosnia and Herzegovina's request for membership in the European Union.

“As I noted in my first letter, the format of the joint meeting, in which representatives of the constituent peoples would attend the meeting on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina, instead of representatives of state institutions, is unacceptable to me and I am glad that you have given up on such a format,” Izetbegovic's stated in his letter.

He suggested that the continuation of talks on the topic of accelerated adoption of the laws necessary to grant BiH candidate status for membership in the European Union should be continued with a meeting with the Joint Board of both houses of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly.

Meetings with the European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement are organized for the purpose of obtaining a “green light” from the European Commission for granting candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina for membership in the European Union.