By: Nevena Šarenac
BiH is a part of Europe. It is an inseparable geographical and cultural part of Europe, like a Mediterranean subtype, said today in Sarajevo the Chairman of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić when he opened the panel discussion “Why are citizens of the Balkans considered to be citizens of Europe?” as part of the project “Plan Balkans: Europolitan”.
Chairman Komšić is the sponsor of today’s panel discussion, whose goal is to develop a quality discussion among young people on the similarities and differences between citizens of the Balkans and citizens of the rest of Europe.
In today’s panel discussion on the premises of the Faculty of Economics, representatives of the EU Delegation to BiH, representatives of the Directorate for European Integration of BiH, representatives of the BiH Academic Community and the non-profit sector from Serbia participated.
“Although we know that the reform processes, which are leading our country towards EU membership are going at a slow pace, the support of all its citizens for EU membership is around 75-80 percent today’’, said Komšić.
He stressed that BiH citizens are Europeans because they wish to leave in peace, prosperity from their work, to travel, learn, demonstrate and enable their children so that the next generation could live their lives without war in this region.
He expressed confidence that BiH would succeed in this despite everything.
“BiH is a specific and complicated country, due to its past and makeup, but this is also our wealth, the culture and traditions, the open-mindedness to accept new ideas, new things and systems’’, said Komšić.
He said that he sees huge potential in young people who are educated, capable, innovative, who could bring BIH to the EU and work on improving the social and living conditions in their country.
Chairman of the BiH Presidency pointed out the success of the Croatian accession to the EU, and noted that we have to learn from its experience, and that ‘we have to make people in BiH equal before the law and the Constitution’.
“Do not allow everyday politics in BiH to affect your life. Be the artists who create a new vision and a new image. In order for an image to be fully comprehended, the view should cover the entire canvas. Allow yourself to contemplate the entire piture and move away from political turmoil, hate and chaos’’, said Komšić to the students, and added that the EU is a long-term peace project to which BiH society aspires.
Whether young people in the Balkans feel as if they are a part of Europe was one of the main topics of the project “Plan Balkans: Europolitan”. This is a project that is the result of cooperation of four young people from BiH and Serbia.
“As part of the project we organized a regional competition on essay writing on the topic-Why are the citizens of the Balkans considered citizens of Europe, which included the participation of young people from the Western Balkans. The answers we received were very positive and it can be concluded that young people from the Balkans are considered citizens of Europe, not only geographically, but also historically and culturally. They are educated, they travel throughout Europe, they participate in seminars and conferences and meet many people from Europe, and they make friends from the Western Balkan countries, which is very important’’, explained Project Coordinator Irma Zulić.
Head of the Political and Economic Section of the EU Delegation to BiH Jurgis Vilcinskas thinks that all projects that are tied to European integration are very important.
“We will try to see if citizens of the Balkans have the same rights and obligations like citizens of the EU. On the one hand, they share the same tradition and history, and on the other hand most countries of the Western Balkans are not EU members, so they are not able to enjoy the advantages of the benefits of cross-border cooperation projects that the EU offers’’, said Vilcinskas to journalists before the start of the project.
