The head of Austrian diplomacy, Alexander Schallenberg, said today in Vienna, answering a question from Fena news agency, that regardless of the composition of the Austrian government after the autumn elections in this country, “you can be sure that Austria will remain strongly committed to the EU path of every country in the Western Balkans”.
Speaking at the opening of the 13th annual EU strategy forum for the Danube region, he also announced a meeting of foreign ministers of this group, among whom will be the head of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Diplomacy Elmedin Konaković.
“Regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, you know that I am extremely close to you and I am very happy to welcome Elmedin Konaković, my friend, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And we are extremely happy that we managed to open accession negotiations with BiH. But this is not a done deal. You have to continue to show the best possible effort,” says Schallenberg.
He warns that the reform road is still very long.
“And for every step, there are expectations from the European Union that are not excessive. Because what we want to see in Bosnia and Herzegovina are reforms that actually help people in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.
He also said that BiH is still a country suffering from a huge brain drain.
“So, actually, from my perspective, the path to the European Union is something that strengthens the economic and life prospects of young people in BiH. We have polls in which young people, 40 percent of young people in BiH say they would leave. This is dangerous. Even and if we would profit from that in Austria. But we are the number one investor. If I see that Austrian entrepreneurs would like to invest, but they no longer find qualified workers, this is a dangerous path that’s why we will continue to push our friends to carry out reforms, and our next step should be to hold an intergovernmental conference this year, in order to really start accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, you can be sure. Austria will stand for it,” said the Austrian head of diplomacy.
Speaking about the Danube Strategy, he said that any kind of platform like this is useful because it brings the region together.
“Sometimes you get the impression that the candidate countries are too focused on Brussels, but the Danube Strategy works on technologies, transport and business, things that are essential. We always wanted the Danube to become an internal waterway of the European Union, and now we are much closer to that goal. States EU members and candidate countries have another platform on which they can strengthen cooperation,” concluded Schallenberg, Fena writes.
