It became clear in 2014 that BiH will face some very serious challenges in the next four to five years, such as unemployment and corruption, said Charge d’Affaires of the EU Delegation to BiH Renzo Daviddi in an interview with FENA.
He explained it was determined that BiH has the highest rate of youth unemployment in Europe (59 percent of the active population aged 15-24), and the second-highest rate of overall unemployment in Europe (28 percent of the labour force).
Daviddi added it has the lowest ranking of European countries on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business indicators and one of the lowest rankings of European countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index.
” We believe that the reforms needed for EU integration can help address these big picture issues. The European Union has now set out its policy, a renewed approach, towards BiH in new Council Conclusions,” said Daviddi.
He finds that for this to bring results, the entire institutional and political leadership of BiH at all levels will need to jointly work on the European future of this country for the benefit of all its people.
” The EU expects all BiH authorities to provide the commitment and actions necessary to reinvigorate the EU integration process”, emphasized Daviddi.
He pointed out they expect the authorities in BiH to address the fragility of the socio-economic situation by starting to implement the Compact for Growth and Jobs.
Asked what he expects from the newly formed government in BiH in 2015, he said that the European Union would like to see an irrevocable written commitment agreed by the Presidency, signed by Party Leaders and endorsed by the House of Representatives to undertake necessary reforms in the framework of EU accession.
Moreover, said Daviddi, the text needs to contain a commitment to work out an initial agenda for reform, including the Compact for Growth, Rule of Law, good governance and other functionality issues such as the coordination mechanism.
In an interview with FENA, Daviddi concluded that reform agenda should be developed and implemented with civil society and that there needs to be the commitment to make progress, at a later stage, on reforms in order to enhance functionality and effectiveness of the different levels of governance is required as well.
(Source: Fena / Jelena Marković)
