The president of HDZ BiH and HNS Dragan Čović met today in Neum with the Vice-President of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Minister of Internal Affairs Davor Božinović, as well as the Minister of Finance Marko Primorac. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the improvement of relations between these two countries in terms of customs administration, i.e. to make it easier for passengers to cross. At the same time, as Čović said, this is a prelude to the meeting of the BiH Council of Ministers with the Government of the Republic of Croatia, which should take place next week.
The president of the HDZ BiH and HNS is once again speaking at important meetings with delegates from Croatia in hotels, bypassing state institutions. This time, he says, the goal was to recognize the common cross-border problems of the two countries, which, as he confirmed, will be further discussed at the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Government of the Republic of Croatia.
“The director of the BiH Border Service and the director of the Indirect Taxation Administration of BiH were here today with me. These are the most invited persons when it comes to customs, the police, when it comes to the border. We talked about that and we will continue,” Cović said.
The participants of the meeting highlighted a lot of problems at the borders in Bosnia and Herzegovina due to the fact that the measures were tightened with the entry of the Republic of Croatia into the Schengen area, which is why, they say, it is necessary to reduce controls at the borders. They also talked about improving the business of entrepreneurs in this area, especially those who are subject to certain customs procedures when exporting goods to the Republic of Croatia.
“Considering that we are in the Schengen area, there are certain actions and procedures that we must adhere to in that context. When we talk about such specifics, we always highlight facts in the context of anecdotal examples in which someone who lives in the border area in terms of daily migration was subjected to some kind of in-depth inspections, including situations in which it was pointed out that school buses with children were searched, that their sandwiches were inspected. This is certainly not the goal of customs procedures, nor should objective customs control focus on such subjects and types of traffic, but on the basis of risk assessment and analysis, focus on those areas, i.e. passengers for whom there is objectively a suspicion, i.e. an increased risk, and that, in that context, all in-depth procedures are directed precisely at such passengers,” said Primorac.
Božinović reminded that on January 1, Croatia entered the Schengen area, which means a new regime for crossing the border between the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our task is to simplify, speed up, make more effective everything we can for the benefit of the people who live in this part of BiH and the Republic of Croatia, he said.
The meeting was held on the first anniversary of the opening of the Pelješki bridge, with which the delegates from Croatia wanted to show that this country has not forgotten Neum and that this is a very important municipality for them. They added that ensuring a successful season in Neum is in the interest not only of citizens of BiH and Croats living in this part, but also in the interest of neighboring cities and municipalities in the Republic of Croatia, which means in the interest of Croatia as well.
