Bosnia and Herzegovina will hopefully start talks on changes to electoral legislation as of next week and the whole process could be finalised by June at the latest, said Bosnian Croat leader Dragan Covic following a meeting with Bosniak leader Bakir Izetbegovic, hoping that this might unblock the country's European road.

“If we manage to do that, then we can hope for the (European Union) candidate status,” he added.

The leaders of the strongest Bosniak and Croat parties, the SDA and HDZ BiH, met on Thursday to discuss the changes to the Election Law. The result, according to its participants, gives optimism.

Covic hopes the leaders will meet the representatives of the international institutions next week already and start the talks on electoral legislation and reform processes.

“There is an idea of having it all finished by either end of April or June,” he added.

Covic was critical of last year's election process and electoral frauds, blaming the state-level electoral authority, the Central Election Commission, of “turning a deaf ear” to all those irregularities.

The political leaders did not discuss the election of Mostar Mayor, according to Covic, who said he hoped both the City Council and the Mayor will be elected on Friday in this city, which held a local vote last December, for the first time in 12 years.

Izetbegovic said he was interested in talks that would speed up Bosnia's European road.

“I don't intend to discuss the formation of authorities in Mostar. As they say it in Mostar, it should be done by Mostarians. European road is in a deadlock and it is necessary to talk and seize this opportunity and energy, and catch up on what we missed,” he stressed, speaking to media prior to the meeting.

Changes of the Election Law will come to agenda once the progress is made in the formation of the Government in Bosnia's Bosniak-Croat shared Federation (FBiH) entity, he added.

“It is about time to make some progress. We can't speak about the law changes while not respecting the law and the Constitution,” stressed the Bosniak leader.

Both Covic and Izetbegovic made it clear the talks that would unblock the country's European road should follow soon, however, leaving it unclear in which order certain reforms and issues will be discussed.