Austrian Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Family Claudia Plakolm will meet with the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo today.
Plakolm is on a working visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of her visit to the Western Balkans.
She announced, ahead of her visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, that she would appeal for the imminent adoption of two reform laws in BiH and a decision on the position of chief negotiator, as the European Union is ready to start accession negotiations as soon as these final steps are taken.
“We must breathe new life into the enlargement of the European Union and Austria is ready to play a central role in this process. This is a joint effort that requires joint action. Dear friends, the time is now: Austria will continue to stand by you, let’s do it!”, said Plakolm, according to a statement from the Austrian Embassy in BiH.
She emphasized that Bosnia and Herzegovina is very close to the actual start of accession negotiations with the European Union and the vast majority of BiH citizens population wants to become citizens of a Union that now seems “incomplete because there is a huge gap in the southeast of Europe – the Western Balkans”.
“Austria has always strongly supported the European perspective for this region and will continue to do so”, said Plakolm, emphasizing that the integration of the Western Balkans is not only a geopolitical necessity but also a promise to the people of the region – people who have been waiting patiently in the “EU waiting room” for more than 20 years.
“Unfortunately, the EU enlargement process has been stalled for several years: for a long time there was no political will to continue this project. This has also affected the image of the EU in the region: while we hesitated, other actors took our place. And what is even more serious: we have lost the hope of the people of the region. Because one thing is clear: both sides, the candidate countries and the EU, must fulfill their promises”, said Plakolm, adding that Europe must also move forward.
“To be more precise, we need to be creative in order to speed up our own processes. Increased use of qualified majority voting could be the way forward and that is what Austria will be pushing for when it comes to the accession process,” she said.
Explaining what this means in practice, she stressed that the European Union has promised to reduce administrative burdens “but this must not only apply to our business, it must also apply to the enlargement process”.
Not all technical or intermediate steps in the process should have to be done by all 27 EU members; instead, qualified majority voting should be returned to these steps, while the closure of each chapter and cluster, like accession itself, is a matter of unanimous decision.
“By doing so, we will ensure that the process remains based on merit and that we make concrete progress along the way without letting bilateral issues overshadow the enlargement process,” the Austrian minister said, stressing that her country is ready to play a central role in breathing new life into the enlargement of the European Union.
