The guest of the BHT1 live show was Mladen Ivanić, former member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ivanić spoke about the expansion of the European Union to the countries of the Western Balkans, the perspectives and the situation 20 years later.
At the beginning of the conversation, Ivanić emphasized that he was a participant in the Thessaloniki summit, and that he remembers the enthusiasm that prevailed at that time. He emphasized that he has been in politics for a long time and that he can assess the real situation 20 years later when it comes to relations between the Western Balkans and the EU.
“There are two parallel worlds there. One world is a formal one in which Europe, for its part, has said that the door is open, and the real world is that Europe does not want new enlargement. Because here we are, I don’t even know how many ten years or more since the last enlargement, when Croatia entered.”
On the other hand, he emphasized that there are also two parallel worlds in the countries of the Western Balkans.
“One is formal, in which the leaders say they are ready for reforms. That everything is open when it comes to the European road, but in fact nothing is happening. You have a real world in which today we still do not have completely independent media, there is significant pressure on the media, we do not have an independent judiciary, we do not have a real fight against corruption and crime, which are some 2-3 key pillars of the European Union. So formally, everyone is kind of optimistic, basically nothing is happening on either side and this region is in trouble.”
We also asked Ivanić if the latest events in the Middle East and in the world could contribute to the rapid integration of the Western Balkans into the EU, i.e. specifically to see Bosnia and Herzegovina through the fingers.
Well, I’m not sure that this, especially in the Middle East, can have much of an impact, he pointed out at the beginning.
“But on the one hand, it is good that the Western Balkans once again entered the focus of the European Union’s interests, but it is tragic, why did it enter? We entered because there was a war in Ukraine, if there was no war in Ukraine, the Western Balkans would still be where it was five years ago. One area that is not the subject of great interest and in which Europe is satisfied with occasional financial assistance and not on a very large scale.”
It is tragic, therefore, that one space has to enter the focus of interest when there are conflicts, and not because it is a real desire and because it is a real real interest, said Ivanić.
“The Middle East is still a bit far from us, at least geographically. It is an area that is already politically divided. The positions of the major players are known, so I do not believe that the conflict in the Middle East will have a decisive effect on the acceleration of our journey.
