The Chairperson of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Borjana Kristo, chose Croatia as her first interstate visit. In Zagreb, she met with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.
Zagreb will not build obstacles on the border between Croatia and BiH, announced Plenkovic after the meeting.
Plenkovic announced the continuation of strong support for BiHon its European path and the opening of accession negotiations with the European Union (EU) as soon as possible.
Help with gas supply
Although the conclusions of the European Council last week opened the possibility of supporting the financing of physical barriers at the borders of the EU and at the borders of the Schengen area, the political position of the Croatian Government is that Croatia does not want and will not build physical barriers on the border with BiH, Plenkovic pointed out.
“Instead of building physical obstacles that would necessarily deter the dynamics of relations between our citizens and our peoples, we want to improve cooperation between the police and relevant ministries and improve all technical and technological aspects of border surveillance and prevention of illegal migration,” explained the Croatian Prime Minister.
“Our goal is to continue discussions on the southern interconnection project in a joint agreement, i.e. gasification further from Dugopolje towards Zagvozd, Imotski and Posusje, and it is up to the BiH authorities to create legal prerequisites for the realization of that project,” Plenkovic said.
On the need to amend the Election Law
Plenkovic reiterated Croatia’s interest in amending the Election Law in BiH so that all constituent peoples and citizens have equal rights, and emphasized that “Croatia’s fundamental position on this issue is that the issue of reforming the electoral system is an internal issue of BiH”.
The Chairperson of the BiH Council of Ministers, Borjana Kristo, assessed that there are open issues between the two states, but that they are not disputed, and she emphasized that limited changes to the Constitution of BiH and the Election Law are not only in the interest of BiH Croats, but in the interest of the entire process and the whole of BiH, Radio Slobodna Evropa writes.