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Sarajevo (Fena) – European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi stated after the third High-Level Political Forum on European Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo that BiH must fulfill the eight conditions set by the European Council in March and accelerate the implementation of reforms if it wants to progress on the European path.
He stated that it is crucial to adopt the Law on Courts, the Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, the Law on Personal Data Protection, and the Law on Border Control in order to approve the so-called negotiation framework, which is the first step towards starting real membership negotiations.
Varhelyi said that the EU is ready to propose the urgent adoption of this framework, but at the same time, everyone in BiH must work to fulfill the remaining conditions. He added that the EU is ready to disburse the first tranche of funds from the EU’s Western Balkans Plan, amounting to around 138 million euros before the summer, if the BiH institution’s budget is adopted, and he hopes that the ruling coalition will manage to do this quickly.
He emphasized that the EU was very satisfied with the reform efforts that preceded the decision to start negotiations, but now it is necessary for all actors in BiH to intensify their efforts instead of dealing with daily political disagreements.
Representatives of all institutions and authorities in BiH are unquestionably committed to the European path – Borjana Krišto
The Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Borjana Krišto, stated that the unquestionable commitment of representatives of all institutions and authorities in BiH to the European path and work on remaining reforms was expressed. She pointed out that the decision to open accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a way limited and concerns the fulfillment of remaining obligations that we are obliged to fulfill.
She added that in fulfilling these reforms, BiH institutions had on their agenda the BiH Election Law, the BiH Court Law, and many other laws, but they came to a situation caused by the OHR imposing the BiH Election Law, which in a way called into question the functioning of the parliamentary majority at the BiH level and decision-making through institutions.
She stated that they must clearly show that they are ready to respect each other and make decisions through the respect of the constitutional structure and the constitutional competencies of the coordination mechanism that the EU has placed before them.
– Once again, I want to say that I will continue to be open and that I will be a link between institutions and all levels of government to do everything so that where there is a certain problem, we offer solutions instead of making the problem bigger – Krišto emphasized. (3.6.)