The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of BiH and Croatia, as well as the EU Commissioner for Enlargement Štefan Fule will speak about open issues between these two countries on 15th February in Brussels, according to TV1.
One of the topics will be the flow of people from BiH to Croatia after 1st July, when Croatia officially becomes a member of the European family, as well as border crossings, popularity of BIP’s and the question of the port in Ploče.
The consequences of Croatia’s EU entry on BiH citizens will be the core of the meeting, and talks are underway with Brussels and Zagreb for the implications of accession to be minimal.
‘’We are already suffering the negative consequences, we can’t export milk and dairy products to the EU…Therefore, that is our domestic mistake and we cannot allow the negative consequences to exacerbate’’, said the Minister to the Assistant for Foreign Affairs of BiH Amer Kapetanović for TV1.
Even if Croatia’s entry to the EU does not make it part of the Schengen Zone, strict border controls are announced, so it is possible that without a passport there will be no entry into Croatia.
Brussels has requested that Croatia submit a request that everything remains as it is now, but if European standard ID cards are debatable, BiH is ready for that as well, because in March biometric ID cards will be issued.
The Agency for the Protection of Personal Data urges the Ministry, before all the Ministry of Security, to broker ID cards as a document that will be sufficient for entry into Croatia once it becomes a part of the EU.
‘’We held bilateral talks in Zagreb, where we officially asked the Croatian authorities to respect the existing agreement on the acknowledgment of ID cards even after 1st July, when Croatia enters the EU’’, said the Assistant of the Minister of Security of BiH Ermin Pešto.
