On the eve of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vesna Pusic said that the initiative on BiH launched by Croatia last spring has in the meantime become the policy of the European Union.
The minister reiterated that the new approach does not stand on lowering criteria, but on a new order.
“BiH can start to move from its place. It is not blocked in the way that it has such high preconditions that it cannot start the process, it is starting the process,” the minister said.
Pusic reported that it is a realistic goal that the newly elected leadership in BiH can establish, the start of negotiations with the EU during their mandate.
She said that the first step in the process is voting for the government and opposition in the BiH Parliament on the European part of the new government’s program, which, according to her proposal, should be allocated for voting.
“What Croatia will additionally insist upon is that the implementation of the agreement on growth and employment be treated as one of the key criteria. We believe this is unusually important. Political results cannot be reached without the fundamental bread that people must have, they must have a way to work for it and live from it,” said Pusic in Brussels.
If the new government succeeds in getting a positive response from the European Commission in its mandate, Pusic said that it will be “secure tracks for BiH, not just on the issue of membership, but on the issue of stabilizing institutions and the efficiency of decision-making.”
This first part, voting in Parliament, will enable activation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, which for Minister Pusic is a very great and important step because an entire series of reforms for BiH is defined in it.
