Josip Brkić, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was a guest in the political minutes this Wednesday on Federalna TV.
Focus of the conversation: the last task of the BiH institutions for the opening of accession negotiations. Will the Council of the European Union follow the recommendation of the European Commission on the opening of negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina? Is he expecting a specific date? What after the opening of negotiations? How will the country with this arrangement move forward in harmonizing with the legislation of the European Union? How far is BiH from NATO membership? Do we have a program of reforms?
Does he expect High Representative Christian Schmidt to impose technical changes to the BiH Election Law? Why was the budget of BiH institutions forgotten?
–Recommendation of the European Commission-
“Member countries are the ones who make the decision to admit new countries to their table. A very important step in all of this is the technical body the European Commission, which highlighted several things yesterday. That this Council of Ministers did a very good job, that this Council of Ministers made a step forward compared to the previous ones. And that all assumptions have been made that, on the basis of the Council’s demands from December last year, the European Commission says that this is enough to open negotiations. As expected, the decision of the European Commission is unconditional. It was not said at all that something had to be done. The European Council does not have to act on the recommendation of the European Commission. Today begins that process within the Council. The next stage is the Council for General Affairs of the European Union. If the decision to open negotiations is also made at that political level, it will not have to go to the European Council, and if there are different views, then the European leaders will make a decision. According to my belief and the information I have from Brussels, the European Council should make a positive decision on the opening of negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The recommendation on the opening of negotiations, but we need to know what the next steps are in the context of coming and sitting down physically with the European Commission for the first time and negotiating the membership of BiH. The negotiation framework for BiH must be defined, the so-called screening must be done, and we in BiH must also do our part of the job, which is to technically prepare the structure of BiH, the coordination mechanism for joining the European Union, because not only one level of government can access it. It would be easiest if we had a date when we will start negotiations with the European Union. But it does not depend on us, it depends on the European Union and it depends on all these steps that I mentioned a moment ago. They require some time for the European Council, the European Commission, and the BiH authorities to prepare for the start of negotiations.
When we talk about the date, we are talking about the first intergovernmental conference between the EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina. I wouldn’t worry too much about dates. It is up to us to do as much as possible from the package of 14 priorities before the European Council session itself, which is on March 22.
To show that in this way we contribute to a positive decision. Then to start the process of screening, that is, analysis. This is truly a historic moment when the European Union is ready to discuss enlargement, ready to discuss the admission of new members, and when that will be, it has always largely depended only on us and the speed with which we will carry out reforms. Actions show how quickly we want to see Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European Union,” he said.
