The Chairperson of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Borjana Krišto, and the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi attended as co-organizers the high-level Political Forum on the EU integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina held on Wednesday in Sarajevo. Kristo said that all the participants expressed their belief and optimism that this is the form through which they should work, and that she is convinced that she will have the help of her friends from the European Union (EU) along the way.
Members of the collegium of both houses of the Parliamentary Assembly (PS) of BiH and representatives of the clubs of both houses of the PS of BiH, prime ministers of entities, prime ministers of cantons in the Federation of BiH and the mayor of Brčko District of BiH participated in the forum.
Kristo pointed out that this Forum, respecting the constitutional structure and coordination mechanism, is the right way and a signal of how BiH should work.
“Through today’s Forum, BiH expressed its readiness for European integration. Of course, at this forum we clearly demonstrated, and received a clear signal from the EU, that BiH is a place in the European family, but also that it is part of European integration processes. But of course, certainly through that dialogue clearly showed everything that BiH needs to express. It is that we have a place, under number one, within the European family, but BiH through all that it has received, in the end we got the candidate status last year, as we say through some kind of rhetoric, as an advance or a matter of some moment and time, we know that we need to fulfill certain conditions along the way,” said Kristo.
She pointed out that the readiness of all political representatives for integration processes through this kind of dialogue was seen today.
“First of all, we expressed our willingness to do it for our sake, to ensure political stability, for the sake of progress in BiH, and also for the sake of movement within the EU. Of course, through these talks, the EU also expressed its willingness to want BiH, after meeting certain conditions, to provide every kind of financial, professional and other help,” said Kristo.
She added that she is encouraged by everything they have done so far, stating that they have made a big step forward on that European path.
As she said, today they went through what is the further focus of both the Council of Ministers and other levels of government, eight recommendations, the implementation of a limited reform of the Constitution and electoral legislation, that is, 14 priorities from the opinion of the European Commission.
“Today, through this dialogue, we basically agreed on some kind of dynamics that we should ultimately adopt through our coordination mechanism. That body should be convened soon and I hope that it will be invited in the next month, since I am the chairman and we are working on preparing the agenda and seeking appointment,” said Kristo.
Várhelyi emphasized that they are in Sarajevo today with one task, and that is to hold a forum that sounds like another bureaucratic story and as if it is not a very important meeting interesting for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it marked the beginning of a different approach and acceleration the path of BiH, a candidate country, to the European Union.
He reminded that the Commission proposed candidate status for BiH last year, which was supported and adopted, and it was a clear signal of hope from the European Union because they believe that the citizens of BiH deserve to be in the European Union, which means that they expect BiH to join the EU as a member.
“My secret expectations are that it will be even better, and today I was convinced that this was justified by the newly formed government of BiH at the state level in record time, the budget was adopted earlier than ever before, and the Government of the Federation of BiH was formed after five years,” he said.
He pointed out that after today’s talks it was confirmed that the candidate status was an incentive to already see progress, which is why he expressed his belief that after today’s meeting it will be possible to fulfill the eight most important conditions, that is, the most important reforms for BiH.
“We see the activities of the government working on things that have been waiting for years, and this leads us to further reforms. President Kristo is making a difference, her government, I am convinced, will bring results,” underlined Várhelyi.
He says that they made a commitment with all political representatives to work on reforms because all constitutional political representatives were there, and Kristo presented a clear plan and agenda on how to work on eight reforms.
He points out that there is now a concrete plan and priorities are clearly defined, and they concern the rule of law and other areas, but now there is a new consensus and today’s forum is part of that emerging consensus, which is necessary for BiH to fulfill its obligations in the context of candidate status.
“This year could be an exceptional year in which there are no choices and be a turning point, and the EU could undertake a strategic process of accession. If there are results, we can speed up BiH’s path to the EU, but there are no shortcuts or concessions, everything must be fulfilled and that applies to every candidate country,” concluded the European Commissioner.
When asked how the EU views today’s announcement by the President of BiH entity Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik that he will visit Russia and meet with President Vladimir Putin, Várhelyi clearly said that EU allies are not going to Russia.
