Muharem Nerjovaj in Bihac, the city of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and his cousin Safet Temaj in Prizren, Kosovo are still waiting for BiH to adopt an agreement on freedom of movement with identity cards between the countries of the Western Balkans.
“I live for that day, I haven’t been to Kosovo for eight months, can you imagine not seeing your child for eight months, it’s not that simple,” Muharem Nerjovaj told.
Three months after six countries signed the Agreement, and in the meantime Kosovo ratified it in the Assembly, the Draft Agreement has not even been discussed in BiH.
Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska (RS), questioned the entire process that would allow citizens of BiHand Kosovo to travel without visas. He stated that ministers from that entity of BiH will not vote for the law in the Council of Ministers of BiH.
Disappointment that there is no agreement
Muharem Nerjovaj has been living in Bihac in the northwest of BiH since 1999.
“I see over there in Kosovo that they ratified that agreement, that the parliament adopted it, and here we are still waiting. But, I think that’s it, it can only last a few months, but they have to open. It would be much easier, much easier, than to run around the embassies. I really don’t feel like running around those embassies anymore,” Nerjovaj points out.
Are there consequences for BiH if it does not implement the Agreement on Free Movement?
Elmedin Konakovic explained that “the document is in the process”, but that it will be proposed again “as soon as there is political agreement for it”, and that he cannot understand why there is no political agreement about it.
Konakovic did not directly comment on Dodik’s statements, but he pointed out that these are not new, but old “tensions” that existed at the time when Tegeltija signed the agreement on behalf of BiH, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.