After yesterday’s round of negotiations between the European Commission and the negotiating team of BiH on the adaptation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), their views are significantly closer, so the official signing of the custom SAA can be expected in May, as confirmed by Hamdo Tinjak, head of the negotiating team of BiH.
“Views are pretty close, so we can expect the initialing of the agreement already in May, unless of course all views are supported. We have completed the technical part, but it is necessary to make some political decisions in the future, which depends on the Presidency of BiH, Council of Ministers of BiH and the European Commission,” said Tinjak.
The agreement on the adaptation of the SAA is one of the most important conditions in order for the application of our country for membership in the EU to be credible and accepted.
Compared to the previous round of negotiations, the European Commission is not at the initial position, but it will definitely not accept all demands of BiH delegation. BiH requested the phase adjustment of the SAA, which means that our country will be gradually giving the custom concessions to EU countries in the next 5 years, up to full realization. However, the European Commission most likely will not agree on the length of the phase adjustment, which will have to be further defined.
BiH delegation wants to protect domestic agricultural producers with its demands, because due to large imports of goods from the EU, domestic producers may suffer severe damage.
(Source: S. H./Klix.ba)