With final adoption of the coordination mechanism, BiH will meet the last condition for the acceptance of its applications for membership in the European Union (EU).
After our country missed the opportunity to be on the agenda of the session of the Foreign Affairs Council of the EU in mid-July, we will wait for the next opportunity until September or until the next meeting of the Council of the EU.
“BiH needs to get used to the fact that the EU follows the deadlines. We missed our deadline and now we are waiting for September. However, this does not change anything that is in force. Whether in July or in September, we can expect a questionnaire of the European Commission because it is crucial to us. The key part is when we will get the questionnaire, and it should be no later than October. Even if BiH was the topic in July, we would still receive the questionnaire in October. It is important for us to be the topic on one of the sessions of the Council of EU, which will require the so called avis from the European Commission. It is in fact preparation of a a reply from the European Commission on readiness of BiH for candidacy status and full membership that will be made on the basis of questionnaires and responses it receives from BiH,” explained Edin Dilberovic, director of the Directorate for European Integration (DEI) of BiH.
The questionnaire, according to Dilberovic, is almost ready and it depends on the acceptance of application of BiH for membership in the EU, and the final adoption of the coordination mechanism. The existence of the coordination mechanism, said director of DEI, in many respects facilitates the process of European integration of our country and the way of decision-making within the coordination mechanism cannot prevent possible obstructions if there is political will for blockages.
“They are possible with or without coordination mechanism. Coordination mechanism will not improve blockages on the EU path, nor it will make them any easier if there is no political will. We do not like to talk about the blockages because we sincerely hope that there is a clear political will for the path that BiH, as well as other countries in the region, should make towards the full integration in the EU and future membership in the EU. I do not believe in obstructions, but they are possible both with and without coordination mechanism as we have witnessed many times so far. When we talk about the European path and when we talk about European integration, we will talk about the conditions. We will talk about the way of meeting certain conditions. Therefore, this is not a story in which we’re going to impose some solutions to the EU through the coordination mechanism but it is a process through which we will learn how to work as a full member of the EU,” said Dilberovic.
(Source: faktor.ba)
