European integration is the main goal of BiH, said the BiH Chairman of the Council of Ministers Vjekoslav Bevanda today to BiH Parliamentarians and session participants of the “Parliament for Europe”, and conveyed by the Advisor to the Chairman Saša Marić.
Members of the Commission for European Integration of the BiH Parliament, National Assembly of the RS, FBiH Parliament and representatives of the Brčko District Assembly gathered today in Sarajevo to discuss the steps that must be taken to create progress regarding the issues with submitting applications for EU membership.
It is the fifth cycle of the initiative “Parliament for Europe” that gathers BiH parliamentarians with EU officials, parliamentary representatives of EU members states and neighboring countries to discuss ways in which they can improve the process of EU integration. Around 120 parliamentarians participated.
During today’s meeting, they discussed the priorities that BiH this year has to achieve, including the progress report for BiH in 2012 that contains the aspects that BiH has to work on in the next years, and all in the context of Croatia’s upcoming EU accession. This is important because Croatia’s accession will have a direct impact on BiH.
Marić said that parliamentarians would propose a suggestion to maximize cooperation with BiH, so that BiH could use as many benefits as it can after Croatia’s accession. This particularly involves the use of the Ploče port and the initiative for BiH citizens to use their ID cards to enter Croatia.
The Deputy Head of the EU Delegation Renzo Daviddi said that parliaments are those that have to adopt to the EU acquis and harmonize its legislation with it. He said that despite numerous warnings from the EU, BiH failed to timely reconcile the right regulations in the area of food safety, which is why after 1 July it would not be able to export live animals and products of animal origin.
In his address to media representatives, Daviddi said that parliaments until now have not acted efficiently in their duties. He added that there are thousands of legislations that need to be harmonized, and which regulate different areas. Some are on the state level, and some on the entity and cantonal level.
As a positive shift, he announced that the signing of the agreement between the parliamentary commission at the state and entity level on EU integration. He rated this as important because the cooperation between the state and entity parliaments is significant in terms of EU integration, given the institutional and constitutional structure of the state.
The Director of the Directorate for European integration in BiH Nevenka Savić, in her address to parliamentarians, focused on the practical challenges that the Department faces in the absence of a political agreement on key EU issues.
She emphasized the importance of implementing a coordination mechanism for a more productive work of the BiH institutions in the process of EU integration, which should be an adequate answer at the request of Brussels that “BiH speaks with one voice”, and for all relevant authorities to have a consistent position.
She expressed hope that the next activities of local institutions would result in a positive progress report on the progress of BiH, which the EU should publish in October.
