The chairman of the parliamentary commission for European integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nikola Lovrinovic, said that the country was on a good track to meet some of the key priorities for the EU candidate status but that the current political developments have stopped everything.

Speaking to Fena news agency, Lovrinovic said that the parliamentary parties were close to the solving of three important challenges from 14 priorities from the European Commission's Opinion on Bosnia's membership application, including the law on public procurement, law on conflict of interest and law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council.

“We were on the right track to agree on that, to get a certain parliamentary majority and to fulfill those three important priorities, in addition of a few more that were met in 2020,” he said, recalling of the agreement on Mostar elections, removal of death penalty in the criminal code of Republika Srpska entity, etc.

“There have been some changes and it seemed to me that with these three laws we would have a credible effort on the path to EU membership,” Lovrinovic stressed, adding that the ongoing political developments have stopped it all.

He said he is among those who believe that Bosnia and Herzegovina should get the EU candidate status and that he is putting his maximum efforts as the commission chairman to contribute to that.

“Obtaining candidate status does not mean immediate membership. There are still years and a number of obligations ahead of us. Only then we would actually open the reform processes and our obligations in the parliamentary procedure, to harmonise our regulations with all those chapters that will open once the candidate status is obtained,” he explained.

2021 is obviously a lost year, he said, adding that he hopes some conditions would be met in the first quarter of 2022 so that the country gets the candidate status.

As for the current political crisis, Lovrinovic said that it “no longer makes sense.”

“Simply, something has to happen, we have to solve these few issues in some way and we have to move on. And that means further towards the candidate status of BiH for EU membership,” he concluded.