Member of the BIH Presidency Željko Komšić, who was in Zagreb on Sunday night at the main square bana Jelačića participated in the central celebration of the entry of Croatia to the EU. In an interview for Fena, he used the opportunity to congratulate Croatia on this significant date, which is very important for the entire region.
Regardless of what stands in the way for BiH at this moment, not only towards the EU, but also towards NATO, he thinks that this positive effect will be felt.
“I do think in the beginning there might be some misunderstandings. When I look at the crossing of the border, economic relations, the standards that Croatia had to apply because it is a formal member of the EU, will be difficult for BIH citizens to become accustomed to, as well as citizens of Croatia’’, said Komšić.
He said that the benefits of Croatian accession to the EU are, as well as in everyday life, stated that good things are usually transferred, and have a domino effect in mind.
Komšić expects that this would also have a kind of psychological effect on BIH, and ‘it is possible that this would stimulate the BiH political elite to see how this unfolds in Croatia so that we would have a little more responsible approach to Euro Atlantic integration”.
“Of course, for this to happen you have to have internal consensus about how and what. Many things in BiH are stuck, in particular when it comes to the path towards the EU of the case of so-called coordination that we have to solve within BiH. However, we are not getting out of this vicious circle of who is actually talking with the EU. We are circling around it whether this is just a country or entities, and now cantons are being included in the story’’, said Komšić.
On the basis of this, he concluded that “we are masters to make ourselves a problem, which other people do not make for us”. He sees a positive effect that, when BiH is now at the doors of Europe, politicians would begin to think differently on everything that is going on.
“Croatia is closer to us, rather than Slovenia. These positive effects will certainly transfer over to BiH’’, thinks Komšić.
The negative effect in BIH of Croatia becoming the 28th member EU state is that there will be disputes due to the methods of organizing the border crossings.
For Croatia, this is an issue of a simple calculation, which is said “due to the movement of goods from BIH that are needed at two crossings”. Komšić said that at least four crossings are needed.
“In this sense, the question that BiH would certainly wait for is to resolve the border with Croatia’’, he added.
“Croatia will act to not only speak in its name, but also in the name of Brussels. I think that here BiH will be a bit indisposed to negotiations, because this is not any more communication between Sarajevo-Zagreb, but also with 28 EU member states. This will be a situation that will be a bit more difficult to place, such as problems of economic exchange’’, said Komšić.
He thinks that this would be a problem only in the first moment because later, things would begin to spawn in its place and that ultimately Croatian accession to the EU would be positive for BiH.
(Source: Fena)
