The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is coming to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, November 1, when she will meet in Sarajevo with members of the BiH Presidency, and then with the President of the BiH Council of Ministers, Borjana Krišto.
This is her third visit to our country in three years, which shows the European Union’s commitment to BiH’s progress on the European path.
The President of the European Commission will arrive in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the eve of the Report on BiH’s progress in fulfilling its obligations on the European path, which will be published on November 8.
According to announcements, during the visit, she should present data on pre-accession aid and financial details that will be presented as part of the project that BiH will be able to access.
Bosnia and Herzegovina on the European road
Back in 2019, Bosnia and Herzegovina received from the European Commission a list of 14 priority tasks that our country needs to fulfill in order to obtain candidate status, that is, in order to open negotiations.
In recent months, BiH adopted five laws from a list of 14 priorities, but political representatives are mostly optimistic that our country will still get a date for the start of negotiations as part of the broader EU narrative in the context of the war in Ukraine. A large number of EU members, including Croatia, are in favor of opening negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, but for now Germany and the Netherlands are against it.
The ruling coalition at the state level held a new round of talks on Thursday to ensure the adoption of at least two or three more laws in the BiH Parliament by the end of the month, ahead of the arrival of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
However, they could not agree on where the seat of the appellate department of the Court of BiH would be. The key problem was whether the seat of the appellate department of the state court would be in Banja Luka, as requested by the authorities of the RS, or in East Sarajevo, which the Federation of BiH insists on, arguing that it is close to the seat of the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, as well as the state prison in which detainees are accommodated.
The EU delegation in BiH pointed out that it was disappointing that no compromise could be reached on the issue, reminding that the European Commission defined the improvement of the functioning of the judiciary as one of the key priorities for BiH.
Due to the dispute over this issue, the ministers from the RS in the BiH Council of Ministers on Thursday blocked the debate on all other laws in that body, so no new proposal for adoption will be sent to the parliament for the time being.
Despite the setbacks at the state level, as well as the laws that were previously adopted in Republika Srpska, which are in conflict with EU legislation, the date for the start of negotiations is being talked about more and more intensively, while it is still questionable how to resolve the numerous political disagreements in our to the country.
Visit to the countries of the Western Balkans
The European Commission President’s visit to the Western Balkans begins today in North Macedonia, where she will meet with President Stevo Pendarovski.
On Monday morning, he will also speak with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski, while in Pristina he will meet with the President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani, as well as with Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
On Tuesday morning, she will be in Podgorica, where she will meet with the President of Montenegro Jakov Milatović and Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, while in the afternoon he will travel to Belgrade.
In Belgrade, she will talk with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, as well as with Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, after which she will come to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fena reports.