The Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Edin Forto, and the Director General of the Directorate for Technology and Communication of the European Commission, Roberto Viola, welcomed the successfully concluded negotiations on the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Digital Europe program at a meeting in Brussels today, announcing that the signing of the Agreement on the Participation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Union program Digital Europe (2021-2027) to be organized by the end of this year or at the very beginning of 2024.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only country in the Western Balkans that has not joined the Digital Europe program.
Minister Forto initiated joining the Program immediately after assuming the position of Minister of State, and the negotiations were opened and concluded in a record short time.
Among the priorities, Forto highlighted the initiative to abolish roaming between Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, the countries of the Western Balkans and the European Union. Support was requested to accelerate the process of complete abolition of roaming as much as possible so that citizens feel the concrete benefit of European integration.
General Director Viola emphasized the obligation to adopt laws and strategic documents that would enable accelerated integration and harmonization with EU legislation, while emphasizing the obligation to harmonize BiH regulations on electronic signatures with the EU’s EIDAS directive.
This would enable Bosnia and Herzegovina to catch up with the Union in accessing e-services and harmonizing with the “European Wallet for Digital Identity” through which citizens will be able to identify themselves in public and private services on and off the Internet, display a mobile driver’s license, approve online payments, electronically sign documents and the like.
“All benefits related to digitization and the abolition of roaming can become a reality only if we stop the practice of political calculations in the process of harmonization with EU regulations, whereby the priority is the adoption of the new law on electronic signatures, i.e. identification,” said Minister Forto, the Ministry of Communications announced.
