Brussels, 27/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle and representatives of state institutions and the main political parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina initiated high level accession dialogue on Wednesday 27 June. The new initiative, that the commissioner trusts will be permanent, comes in addition to existing measures and communications but will add an additional level of political dialogue. It will, Füle said, be a political bridge between today and the beginning of accession talks.
Dialogue will help Bosnia-Herzegovina to take the accession process forward by explaining the method for accession talks and what is expected of a candidate state not only from the political but also from the technical aspect. This meeting, Füle said, is the first stage in a process for identifying the best political and technical means for achieving one's ends.
Stefan Füle underlined that high level accession dialogue would focus on the coordination mechanism. The Commission trusts that dialogue will make it possible to demonstrate, through the use of concrete examples, why an effective coordination mechanism on EU questions must be set in place so that Sarajevo is able to negotiate with the EU, with a single voice. “For the next stage in the accession process, it is important for Bosnia to speak with a single voice”, the commissioner underlined, pointing out that the future of Bosnia-Herzegovina lies within Europe. Explaining that a decentralised state is not an obstacle for accession, Füle explained that decentralisation requires coordination within that country - something which, he commented, does not exist in Bosnia-Herzegovina today. He went on to explain that a successful membership process for Sarajevo will “essentially” depend on the mutual trust that exists between the different communities in that country. Bosnia-Herzegovina has not yet put forward its request to become an official candidate for joining the EU. (CG/transl.jl)