It has been a year since the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn delivered the Questionnaire of the European Commission to BiH, and four-fifths of the answers to the Questionnaire have been translated, as announced by the Directorate for European Integrations.
Marina Kavaz-Sirucic, a spokeswoman for the Directorate for European Integrations of the Council of Ministers of BiH, stated that the process of expert editing and confirmation of translated answers will follow after the control of translation and quality.
“When it comes to the remaining fifth, part of the answers is currently in the process of translation, and the rest of the answers that have not been translated yet are in different phases of finalization (preparation in working groups, finalization in the Commission or the Collegium of European Integrations or in the process of confirmation at all government levels). Only when all these phases are completed, these answers will be sent on translation,” said Kavaz-Sirucic.
She also added that the unfinalized answers to the Questionnaire are not distinguished by any means and that all of them are about determining the formulation and contents, on which all the actors should mutually agree.
“The actors are members of the working groups, if it is about finalizing the responses in the working groups, members of the Commission for European Integrations in relation with the content that this body was dealing with, and the same logic applies to the the Collegium of European Integrations as well,” stated Kavaz-Sirucic.
Asked when it is expected for these activities in relation to the Questionnaire of the European Commission to be finalized, Kavaz-Sirucic noted that the finalization of the work depends on the dynamics of all bodies within the coordination system, which cannot be foreseen by the Directorate.
The Questionnaire of the EC includes a total of 3.242 questions that are grouped into political and economic criteria as well as 33 chapters of the legal acquis of the EU, and it was stated then that the European Commission is expecting from BiH to submit answers to the Questionnaire within six months, or until July 2017.
All of our neighbouring countries needed less time to respond in comparison to BiH. Serbia needed just a little bit more than two months (Questionnaire received on November 23, 2010, and answers were submitted on January 31, 2011), Croatia needed just three months (Questionnaire received on July 10, 2003, and answers were submitted on October 9, 2003) and Montenegro needed five months (Questionnaire received on November 23, 2009 and answers were submitted on December 9, 2011).
(Source: I. C./Klix.ba)
