Confirming that Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) responded to 3.242 questions from the European Commission (EC) and that the answers in Sarajevo will be handed over to EC President Jean-Claude Juncker, the Director of the Directorate for European Integration (DEI) BiH, Edin Dilberovic, said that the answers contain a total of 20.037 pages of material, including 1.115 laws and other acts attached to these responses.
Namely, members of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PABiH), Mladen Bosic and Senad Sepic, talked yesterday in Sarajevo with the DEI Director about the completed process of replying to the EC Questionnaire, and further steps that will need to be made in order for BiH to get a candidate status and start negotiations for the full membership in the European Union (EU).
According to Dilberovic, within the established Coordination Mechanism, more than 1.300 representatives of institutions at different levels of authority in BiH worked on coordinating of the responses.
“Despite the fact that each of these representatives had the right of veto, in 35 working groups, a consensus was reached for about 94 percent of the responses to the EC Questionnaire, “ Dilberovic emphasized.
He noted that besides the responses of the institutions in BiH, 170 responses from non-governmental organizations were also translated and submitted, as well as 5.347 responses from BiH citizens, who had the opportunity to directly answer to 35 questions.
During the meeting, which was held in accordance with the conclusion of the 47th session of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the House of Representatives of the PABiH, it was discussed about the further steps of the EU institutions regarding sending the additional questions, the requests of the representatives of the EC for clarification of the responses, and sending EC missions in the following period which will ask from BiH institutions to explain individual responses, as it was announced by the PABiH.
In this regard, it was stressed that, after examining the responses to the Questionnaire, the EC will prepare an opinion to be sent to all EU Member States. After all of these countries declare on the opinion, the final decision on the candidate status of BiH will be made by the Council of the EU, as it was concluded at a meeting about which all members of the Foreign Affairs Commission will be informed, as well as members of the Collegium of the House of Representatives of the PABiH.
(Source: klix.ba)
