European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn has called on the Bosnians to highlight reforms in the coming year, as general elections are planned for the end of 2018.
"As far as is possible, I really urge [the Bosnians] to use this year to focus on the reform agenda, on political work, and to refrain from pre-electoral activities which usually put a brake on political work", Hahn said at the end of a meeting with Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Zvizdić.
Hahn stated that the EU expected the Bosnian government to continue to say focused on its commitments to making progress on the European path, particularly with the country's "quality and harmonised" response to the questionnaire that was sent by the EU as part of the accession process. "It is important to make further progress in implementing the reform agenda – be this on the economy and social issues, or the rule of law and the reform of public administration", Hahn added. In particular, he explained that the reform of electoral legislation is expected to be the subject of an agreement between the country's political parties and to be based on consensus and dialogue. "This should bring the country closer to the EU's standards and not further away", he said.
Zvizdić confirmed that Bosnia and Herzegovina's engagement to respect its commitments in terms of reforms (see EUROPE 11812) and its ambitions on candidate status were "one of our most important objectives for the next five or six years". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)