The head of the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Johann Sattler, handed over the European Commission's report on BiH's progress towards the EU to the Chair of the Council of Ministers, Borjana Kristo, pointing out that it is a good thing that "we are moving forward" and stated that BiH is now "catching up with the rest of the region" in progress. "Our door is wide open and it is now up to Bosnia and Herzegovina to go through it," said Sattler.
Kristo expressed her satisfaction that the EC recognized everything that BiH institutions had done in the past.
“Compared to previous years, significant progress has been made in terms of European reforms, especially in the field of the rule of law, the functioning of democratic institutions, the harmonization of our foreign policy positions with the EU, the field of corruption and crime, the strengthening of economic stability, the construction of an inclusive BiH. society… We are happy that the EC today adopted the IPA plan that President Ursula von der Leyen presented last week during her visit to BiH,” said Kristo.
She added that progress is “the result of good policies of agreement and consensus, and that is the only way BiH can make progress.”
Sattler stated that BiH received a conditional opening of negotiations. He enumerated all the reform steps BiH must take and stated that the report also contains moves that “go in the wrong direction”, and which come from Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity. Among them are the decisions of the RS Parliament regarding judges of the BiH Constitutional Court, the Constitutional Court, as well as the law on the criminalisation of defamation.
“I use the opportunity to send a clear message that such activities should stop and call on both entities that their legislative bodies send nominations of judges to fill the convocation of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is also the criminalization of defamation in the RS, which represents a clear and undeniable setback in media freedoms,” said Sattler.
Speaking about the EU aid worth six billion euros for the Western Balkans, as well as the growth plan, he said that it was an unprecedented process.
“The plan is to start integrating into the common market with the proposal to start from seven areas, including the payment system. This would be concretely felt by both physical and legal entities. We want to jointly speed up the activities on regional integration, which was started within the Berlin process. We want a stronger focus and attention in the area of the rule of law, and the fight against corruption and organized crime, so that you are more attractive to foreign investors. The fourth thing is that six billion euros were adopted. Two billion euros are grants, and four million euros are loans and credits. If you implement reforms, you get the funds. I call on leaders and institutions to take concrete steps that will improve the quality of life of citizens,” said Sattler.
He expressed the hope that Bosnia and Herzegovina will have a plan for the adoption of reforms in the next five weeks.
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