Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and the Enlargement of the European Union, Johannes Hahn, will deliver the Questionnaire of the European Commission in Sarajevo. The authorities of BiH have six months to give answers, in order for the European Commission to start the process of deciding on candidacy status for BiH.
BiH applied for membership in the EU on the 15th of February, which the European Commission adopted in September and decided to submit the Questionnaire as the next phase that expects BiH on the path of EU integration.
Following the experiences of other countries that have already passed this phase, it is expected that around 2,500 questions will arrive in BiH on which BH authorities will offer answers, although it is estimated that the Questionnaire for BiH could contain over 3,000 questions. The exact number of questions to BiH will be known after Commissioner Hahn hands the Questionnaire to BH authorities.
Number of questions varies from country to country, and in the case of Croatia there was 4.560 question, 4.666 for Macedonia, 2280 for Albania, 2.178 for Montenegro, and 2,483 questions for Serbia. The European Commission establishes a deadline by which the answers on the questions should be submitted, which is usually two to four months. For Croatia, this period was three months, for Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro four months, and for Serbia two months.
After analyzing the answers, the Commission may submit additional questions in order to clarify the submitted responses or obtain information on new findings. Number of additional questions depends on the content of the answers that were originally submitted, the level of detail that were contained in the responses, the extent of the missing information, etc. All aforementioned countries received additional questions.
Along with answers to questions, the English translation of existing regulations in various fields must be submitted as well, which indicates the importance of the Questionnaire and its analytical dimension.
On the occasion of the submission of the Questionnaire for BiH, the Directorate for European Integration of the Council of Ministers in cooperation with the EU Delegation in BiH will organize a seminar for officials who will be involved in the preparation of answers on the Questionnaire of the European Commission.
The purpose of the seminar is to provide an understanding of the preparation of responses to the questionnaire to the officials from all levels, to present the role of all stakeholders in this, to note specific issues and the scope of information that the European Commission expects from BiH, as well as to explain other practical aspects of this task.
(Source: fokus.ba)
