Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Elmedin Konaković, who is in Strasbourg having a series of meetings with EU officials, said that Bosnia and Herzegovina really has a great chance that this generation, the Council of Ministers and the Parliament will finally formally and very concretely bring the country closer to European integration and that the citizens benefit greatly from it.
“We used the opportunity because the plenary session of the European Parliament is being held in Strasbourg and we knew that we would find a lot of people in one place for whom it is important to present the successes achieved by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, actually the results we achieved in a short period of time, which are related for the European path of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Konaković for Fena.
According to him, it was very important to give the people who are recognized as lobbyists of BiH or for BiH enough arguments why they should continue to advocate or defend the thesis that it is time for the EU to do two important things.
“One is a political decision on enlargement, on the start of negotiations that should be made by the EU, and the other is to actually help us with the concrete package planned for the Western Balkans so that the reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina take place faster and more efficiently and that our companies have access to the single market of Europe, to make us some reliefs that are important for the economy and bring us closer, of course, to grants and funds that would significantly improve the lives of citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Konaković pointed out.
He stated that they had meetings with the EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Relations and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, with the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs, Ilva Johansson, and with a large number of MEPs. On the sidelines of the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Konaković met yesterday with representatives of the European Parliament, Romeo Franco and Reinhard Butikofer, and this morning with Tineke Strik, Tonino Picula, with the rapporteur of the European Parliament for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Paul Rangel, then with Dietmar Koster, Tijs Rojten, Michael Galer, as well as Klemen Grošelj, who is also a proven friend of BiH, and others. That is a large number of people to whom, as Konaković stated, they explained what they were interested in, gave enough information and answered all their questions.
“Of course, there were a lot of questions about the current political situation and indignation due to the attention-grabbing events in the Republika Srpska regarding the high representative being prevented from entering the official premises. So this is something that worries them and it’s really a shame if the politicians, especially from Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik and the representatives from SNSD, are wasting an opportunity like this in which they could be part of a very, very positive event where the citizens of Republika Srpska should very quickly and concretely feel better living conditions,” said Konakovic, Fena reports.
