The Western Balkans Leaders’ Summit, which was scheduled to be held on December 4-5 in Neum, has been postponed. The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina has canceled the Summit because the tender for organizing the event was rejected. The two-day event in Neum was supposed to bring together key stakeholders from the region and the European Union to discuss important political, economic and social issues.
“The doors of the European Union are open. The moment is now, we expect a result because we want Bosnia and Herzegovina to continue the process towards the European Union, where Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs,” said Luigi Soreca, Head of the European Union Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Mostar.
As a reminder, the deadline for harmonizing and adopting laws and the text of the Reform Agenda that the European Union has set for Bosnia and Herzegovina is December 5.
Soreca added that the European Union wants Bosnia and Herzegovina to follow the rest of the region in taking advantage of the significant benefits brought by the Growth Plan.
“We are witnessing a certain level of positive atmosphere among political leaders regarding the Growth Plan and the Reform Agenda. The domestic authorities are well aware of the expectations. We expect the adoption of four laws and three appointments, including the appointment of the Chief Negotiator,” said Soreca.
Time is running out, so the question arises whether domestic politicians want the same. Speaking of the Growth Plan, the text of the Reform Agenda has been agreed with all agreed measures, which should unblock the process of adopting this document.
As a reminder, the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have until December 4 to finalize this document, accept it and send it to Brussels. Further talks on the Growth Plan and the laws that need to be completed are announced.
“A lot has been agreed, but let’s say it’s best to say that on Monday, December 2nd at 11 am, there will be a meeting of all of us to complete what was left open after the last meeting in East Sarajevo. I think that we will have two laws, fully agreed upon, then they will go to the Council of Ministers. We will have a defined Growth Plan, we will have a negotiating framework defined by the negotiators, and we will even start talking about the 2025 budget,” said the president of the HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović.
Speaking about the work of the government, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina canceled the Western Balkans Leaders’ Summit, which was supposed to be held on December 4th and 5th in Neum, because the tender for organizing this event failed.
“I received the news with disbelief and shock that the joint institutions of BiH managed to disgrace themselves by canceling the summit of the leaders of the Western Balkans and the European Union due to disorganization and procedural failures. This is yet another piece of evidence that political Sarajevo is not up to the responsible tasks that should be in the interest of all citizens of BiH,” said the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik.
“Do the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers, Borjana Krišto, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elmedin Konaković, plan to take responsibility for this diplomatic fiasco of Bosnia and Herzegovina? If not, who do they consider responsible, and what sanctions do they foresee for those responsible?”, asked Sabina Ćudić, a member of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not the organizer of the summit in Neum, it has nothing to do with the cancellation of the summit, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs, I did not even plan to attend the summit because we have a confirmed OSCE meeting in Malta at the same time,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, Elmedin Konaković.
“There is hypocrisy when talking about political will towards membership in the European Union and reform laws,” says sociologist Srđan Vukadinović.
Vukadinović adds that there has been a devaluation of politics, and that in Bosnia and Herzegovina politics is, therefore, being destroyed as a serious discipline, BHRT writes.
