After a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Elmedin Konaković and the Minister of European and International Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg, the Vice President of the Government of Italy and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani said that the situation in BiH regarding the EU has never been better.
Tajani said that Italy’s position is clear and that Bosnia and Herzegovina is considered part of Europe, as if it were there in Sarajevo to support the opening of negotiations.
“I am very glad because we are working hard to achieve that goal, we support your reforms. The situation today is better than ever in the history of your country. This is important, your involvement will pave the way for opening and ending negotiations to become a member of the European Union,” he said.
He added that the Western Balkans is a priority for Italy, saying that together with friends, such as Austria, a group has been formed that is here to help Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs announced that the new meeting will soon be in Austria and that BiH together with its friends is “pushing in the right direction.
“We are focused on strong strategic cooperation, on stability in the region to work against terrorism, against human trafficking, against drug trafficking and illegal migration. Cooperation in this sector and the general adoption of anti-money laundering laws are all important achievements and you are working diligently together with to us, to achieve this goal together,” said Tajani.
He added that Italy, together with Bosnia and Herzegovina, “works diligently” on the economic level, and that the goal is to strengthen this cooperation.
The goal is to increase the number of Italian companies operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He pointed out that the plan is to improve cooperation in the tourism segment as well, which will increase the number of Italian tourists in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“We are friends of BiH and we will do everything to support our membership in the EU, you can count on us,” Tajani said at the end.
He repeated that Italy’s strategy is very clear, which is to support BiH.
“I am very happy to see such well-achieved progress. Of course there are problems, there are problems everywhere, so we need to work step by step, it is important to have a strategy. I understand the problems in the RS very well, but I am more optimistic than myself before. Italy is not alone in these efforts, today we are here because we want the message that we are united in supporting BiH to achieve good results. I think it is important that we have that unity among us in the EU, if you want to win this fight for BiH then we must explain the importance of BiH’s membership in the EU. The Western Balkans is a key priority for us and for the EU, so we must work together to help this country. You have problems everywhere, but our strategy is stronger than the problems, and that is why I am optimistic about BiH’s membership in the coming years We want to support those efforts,” Tajani said at the end, Klix.ba reports.
