Bosnia and Herzegovina must show renewed commitment, says MEP

The EU should keep encouraging greater political will within Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) if the country is to make progress towards European integration, a German MEP has said.

Writing in the latest issue of the Parliament Magazine, Doris Pack, parliament's rapporteur on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with BiH, says that the country must continue to implement significant reforms in oder to meet membership criteria.  

"Bosnia and Herzegovina lost years before it signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, and now its politicians are not even capable of nominating a coordinator for dealing with the IPA funds - the European financial aid - which is foreseen in our EU budget for countries that have signed the SAA, to help them reform their economic, environmental and other such problems," she says.

The security situation and peace sustainability in the country have improved significantly on the ground, she adds, which is why the decision was taken to gradually scale down the EU military mission was decided by defence ministers earlier this month.  

Pack says, however, that the leaders of BiH must demonstrate a much greater level of commitment when it comes to relations with Europe.

"I urge the political leaders of BiH to make serious efforts to meet the objectives and conditions set by the peace implementation council, including, for example, the entrenchment of the rule of law and the apportionment of property between the state and other levels of government," she says.

"I am not convinced that Bosnia and Herzegovina can join the EU in its current form, with two entities and 10 cantons. But I am convinced that the human factor is more decisive and important than the constitution on paper."

"Constitutional reform is desirable to transform Bosnia and Herzegovina into a modern and efficient state...the state and its territorial and administrative structures should be there and exist for its people, not the other way round.

"The EU institutions should support and facilitate the process, for their part, until its natural conclusion: a clear political agreement to implement a new constitutional settlement, without which the country would not be fit for EU membership."

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