President Michel held meetings with the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency and political leaders on Friday.
The aim of the visit was to listen to the Leaders on their key priorities, and to exchange on how to give new impetus to reforms on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU path. The discussions were substantial and productive and notably on how the EU can support improving and strengthening the functioning of state institutions and thus also improve the delivery of services, jobs, growth and prosperity for all citizens. President Michel expressed his readiness to facilitate re-energising the dialogue between all parties.
The President has agreed with the political leaders to convene a meeting in Brussels in the next weeks to work upon a roadmap which will set out the priority reforms and the political agreements needed to reinvigorate the EU path for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The common challenges we face today require new ways of thinking, and new ways of working. We need to speed up EU integration, and we must create a new impetus for reform. Almost twenty years ago, the Thessaloniki Summit provided a firm commitment of an EU future for the region. And today, we feel a new sense of urgency. We want to support you – our Western Balkans partners and friends – on your journey to the EU. We have proposed that we envision the process of enlargement in a new way. That offers concrete socio-economic advantages and political integration during the accession negotiations. This new dynamism for EU enlargement also needs to be matched by a new push for reforms among the countries of the region,” Michel said.
”I would like to be extremely clear. We propose to have a debate in June in the European Council on this idea to put in place a geopolitical European community, or a political European community – a political platform. This doesn’t replace the EU accession process, on the contrary, we want to speed up political integration by making sure that we can cooperate and coordinate and address together some common challenges immediately without waiting for the final decision that will be needed on the topic of the accession process,” he added.
Relations between the EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Western Balkans and Bosnia and Herzegovina are a high priority for the EU. I strongly believe that your future is within the EU — as a single, united and sovereign country. The EU path is set. Now the obstacles need to be cleared.
The path to the EU is outlined in the fourteen (14) key priorities. We hope to see real action on this agenda of political, social and economic reforms. It’s important that all political leaders engage in dialogue. Establishing trust and dialogue is key.
We discussed how we can give momentum to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s European perspective. Advancing on reforms means advancing towards the EU.
