While Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been stagnant for years in its accession path to the European Union (EU), the interesting news is coming from another region that could significantly affect our country as well.
On Monday, the so-called “Batumi Declaration of the Black Sea Countries” between Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia was signed. It specifies that the three countries will establish better relations with each other when it comes to the flow of goods, people, and services, and at the same time they will continue their path towards the EU.
Economic analyst Drasko Acimovic noted that earlier, before Macron’s statement on changing the system of accession negotiations, he announced something similar and underlined that a new “system of the EU path” is being created on the basis of regions.
“It is precisely this region of the three Black Sea countries, such as the Small or Balkan Schengen, that was formed, to which BiH and Kosovo do not want to join, although Kosovo has committed to that in Washington, which was discussed a fewyears ago in the certain groups and it is not a secret. Now there has been an acceleration of these processes. If we analyze this new group, we notice that there are many differences and that there will be issues, but that is the path taken by the Visegrad Group, the Scandinavian Group, and the Baltic Group before their joint entry into the EU, ” he told.
Also, he said that it is a great test for those countries and for Europe.
“In the first place, these regions need to show that they can establish European values while respecting human rights, territorial integrity, and working together on the main theme, which is the fight against crime and corruption, which has become the number one problem in all Balkan and Black Sea countries. The way of the so-called ‘double test for the EU’ is of great importance both for citizens and the economy, but for politicians who rule with tensions, blockades, and crime, these initiatives are a problem and they do everything to stop them,” he emphasized.
We will soon see the realization of the projects of these three Black Sea countries, and the same first steps will probably be signed as was the case between Albania, Serbia, and NorthMacedonia.
“Unfortunately, we have a big problem in BiH if citizens continue to be manipulated and if access to the Balkan Schengenis not allowed, which was also supported by the international community (Washington signature between Belgrade and Pristina) and would bring billions of euros for economic projects to launch economy and stop the working population from going abroad, ” he mentioned.
Further, he added that if we do not join the Balkan Group summit on July 28th, other countries will not wait but will use the money for themselves, and BiH will still have only situations like those in the pandemic, where BiH was second in the world when it comes to the number of deaths due to corruption and government inaction. We will continue to have a situation where we only have humanitarian aid planes from the world because the government does not want progress and has decided to sacrifice the people by shouting slogans about patriotism while accompanying citizens on their way to other countries for vaccines, medicines, and job,” he concluded, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.