The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Josip Brkic, spoke yesterday in Sarajevo with the Minister for the European Union (EU) and Constitution of the Republic of Austria, Karoline Edtstadler.
A tête-à-tête meeting between Brkic and Edtstadler was held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH, followed by a meeting of the delegations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH and the Federal Ministry for the EU and Constitution of the Republic of Austria.
Brkic told reporters after the meeting that they discussed current issues, both the European future of BiH and everything that is happening in our almost direct neighborhood.
”I am grateful to the Republic of Austria, the minister personally, and the chancellor for the bilateral and multilateral support that Austria provides to BiH. Today, we focused precisely on getting BiH candidate status at the upcoming Council of the EU,” Brkic stated yesterday.
He informed the minister that the focus of the institutions of BiH is to meet the conditions for obtaining candidate status and ”the fact that two days ago we had officially announced election results only accelerates us in the context of the formation of authorities at all levels in BiH in order to speed up that path and reach candidate status at the end this year.”
The Federal Minister for the EU and the Constitution of the Republic of Austria, Karoline Edtstadler, said that the whole of Austria is very closely connected with BiH on different levels – historically, culturally, and economically.
”Precisely with this visit and in general our approach towards BiH, we want this cooperation to deepen, especially now, at a time when we are all facing big challenges in different forms,”Minister Edstadler emphasized.
She added that she is happy that the figures illustrating economic cooperation are very significant in support of the fruitful cooperation between BiH and Austria, that Austria is number one when it comes to foreign investments in BiH, that Austria holds the title of builder of bridges to the Western Balkans, that it is a reliable partner and that it wants to remain so.
”I want to say that the EU is not complete without all six countries of the Western Balkans. I also want to say that I am not satisfied with the pace at which this region, especially BiH, has been moving towards European integration in the past. All the more we want that to change in the coming time and that the integration of this region continues to move in the right direction,” said the minister.
