Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Šefik Džaferović, met with the Federal Minister of the Republic of Austria for the European Union and Constitution, Karolina Edtstadler.
At the beginning of the conversation, Džaferović pointed out that there are no open issues between the two countries and that cooperation is developing very successfully in politics, economy, culture, defense, education, and all other areas.
He thanked the Republic of Austria for its strong support in the adoption of the European Commission’s recommendation on granting BiH candidate status for EU membership, stressing that BiH is particularly encouraged by the views of Austrian leaders, especially Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who support the accelerated path of BiH and other Western Balkans countries, towards EU membership.
He pointed out that the Republic of Austria, as a close friend of BiH, has from the very beginning advocated for the rapid progress of BiH in the EU accession process.
Minister Edtstadler said that the Republic of Austria firmly stands by the positions of BiH and other countries of the Western Balkans regarding their integration into the EU.
She assessed that in BiH the next period should be used to achieve as much as possible from the EU recommendations to get candidate status for EU membership by the end of the year, expressing expectations that this will happen.
Chairman Džaferović pointed to the fact that the Republic of Austria is economically one of the largest and most important trade and investment partners in BiH with more than one billion euros in direct investments.
They also discussed the recently held General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the conclusion that it is now necessary to implement their results as soon as possible so that the necessary reforms can be started.
The interlocutors welcomed the UN decision to extend EUFOR’s mandate in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
