The Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of BIH for bilateral affairs Amer Kapetanović confirmed in the Official Journal of the European Union that on Tuesday three decisions on the derogation acquis was published, which enables BiH to use the port of Ploče beginning on 1 July.
This made it possible for BiH to participate in the signing of the interpretative statements, which ensures free passing of goods though Neum from Croatia.
After a year of negotiations and a very clear negotiation position of Bih, the EU has decided to make an unprecedented concession to BiH and to change their legislation so that BiH can continue to use this strategically important seaport.
“This is sort of a signal of goodwill that Brussels is sending today to BiH in the hopes that the interpretative statement will be signed soon in which, on the basis of these decisions, BiH would enable for Croatia/EU a pass through Neum, and all in the spirit of a bilateral agreement from 1998, and two more agreements on border crossings and border traffic so that the negative implications of Croatia’s forthcoming EU accession would be reduced’’, said Kapetanović.
