The 4th Subcommittee meeting on topics related to Education, Research and Innovation, Information Society and Social Policy between the EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH) took place on 20 February in Brussels. Representatives from the European Commission (Commission) discussed with relevant authorities the most recent developments in these areas. The meeting was co-chaired for the EU by Mr. Alberto Cammarata, Deputy Head of Unit for Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement and for Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Mr. Adnan Husić, Assistant Minister from the BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The Commission welcomed the first participation of BiH in PISA 2018 and stressed the importance of following up on its results as well as the urgency of signing the contract with OECD for the new PISA cycle. The Commission welcomed the agreement reached on re-accreditation of two universities (Banja Luka and East Sarajevo) and encouraged the authorities to address the issue of the accreditation of study programs.
BiH was invited to finalize the drafting of the Law on Electronic Communication and Electronic Media andto adopt new legislation on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions (e-Signature). The Commission commended the following up on the regional roaming agreement implementation. It asked BiH to fully implement the legislation on public service broadcasting.
The Commission noted positively the good results BiH has achieved in Horizon 2020. The Commission expressed concern regarding the lack of statistics, especially in view of developing the Smart Specialization Strategy and BiH’s participation in the European Innovation Scoreboard. The Commission invited BiH institutions to enhance approximation with the EU acquis and in particular to take further steps on harmonization of labour legislation. BiH authorities were invited to adopt the vocational and educational strategy. The Commission encouraged the authorities to draft and adopt the employment strategies at entities level and country-wide.
