Brussels, 28/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina have agreed to a roadmap which, if timely and successfully implemented, could lead the country to submit a credible membership application to the EU before the end of the year. This is stressed in the high-level accession dialogue for Bosnia's membership of the EU, held on Wednesday 27 June.
The roadmap states that, on 31 August, Bosnia and Herzegovina must propose to its parliamentary assembly that the constitution be modified in order to come into line with the Sejdic/Finci decision, allowing it until 30 November to make the amendment. The Sejdic/Finci decision by the European Court of Human Rights condemns the fact that only Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian ethnic minorities may be elected to the presidency of the state and to the parliament's House of Representatives. This is the essential element that is missing for a Council decision on entry into force of the stabilisation and association agreement (SAA), the conclusions state, explaining that, by 30 November, the country may submit a credible EU membership application “on the condition that the SAA enters into force”.
Furthermore, a high-level Commission team will be going to Bosnia and Herzegovina to carry out a mid-term review of the roadmap in order to prepare the second high-level accession dialogue meeting (scheduled for November), during the second half of September. On 7 October, local elections are to be held in the country and will be followed, on 10 October, by the adoption of the annual progress report on Bosnia and Herzegovina by the European Commission. Sarajevo must also, by 31 October at the latest, define an effective “community coordination mechanism” between all levels of power, on European questions, so that the country has a common position and speaks with a single voice. The country must also, within the same timeframe, answer two sets of sector-specific questions (from the Commission) on chapters relating to public procurement (5) and the environment (27).
During the dialogue, the Bosnian authorities also acknowledged the need to transpose Community legislation throughout the whole territory in a “harmonised and coordinated manner”, and in line with the relevant constitutional powers, and also improve the effective functioning of the administration at every level of government so that the country is in a position to “adopt, apply and enforce the rules and laws of the EU”. (CG/transl.jl)