If the coordination mechanism issue is solved in the next thirty days, and if the Council for General Affairs of the European Union accepts the application for membership of BiH in the EU at the session on September 20, BiH will make a new step on the European path.
If the mentioned obligation is fulfilled, BiH should receive a survey from the European Commission already in October, according to estimations of the Directorate for European Integration of BiH Edin Dilberović. Based on this survey, the readiness of BiH to obtain the candidate status and open negotiations on accession to the EU will be evaluated. The questions will mostly be of statistical nature, such as the number of residents and social, gender, age and educational structure.
Depending on the answers, the European Commission will create an opinion on the request for membership and eventually, if that opinion in positive, recommend the Council of EU to approve the candidate status. That process, from the survey to the opinion, last several months.
Even in BiH adopts the coordination mechanism within the foreseen timeframe, that is not a guarantee that the Council for General Affairs will accept the application of BiH for membership in the EU in September and that BiH will eventually receive the survey from the European Commission.
“Unfortunately, that fear exists because everything depends on us. We cannot have just any coordination mechanism, but a functional coordination mechanism. I think it will be a challenge to prove the functionality of the coordination mechanism,” stated Lejla Ramić-Mesihović, Director of the Foreign Policy Initiative of BiH.
(Source: faktor.ba)
