During a hearing at the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Monday 23 October, the chairman of the presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dragan Čović, stressed on a number of occasions that his country’s future is in Europe.
Čović told MEPs that there was no alternative to the European road for Bosnia-Herzegovina and a common future was the only possible one, and common prosperity the only solution. He said his country was in a hurry to join and the enlargement policy was his country’s ambition.
Čović pointed out that his country was working on the questionnaire the European Commission will base itself on for deciding whether to recommend granting Sarajevo EU candidate country status. He revealed that 1,300 officials have already written more than 25,000 pages of answers and that of the 3,243 questions, answers were now only needed to some 50 of them. The questionnaire could be fully answered by 15 December.
Čović stressed that his country wants to join the EU in 2018. He is ambitious. In addition to wanting candidate country status, he wants to see the opening of negotiating chapters, particularly Chapter 23 on judicial reform and fundamental rights and Chapter 24 on freedom, security, and he said that as soon as chapters start opening, integration will become more essential and more tangible.
Central part of the electoral law. Čović said that candidate country status for joining the EU and the opening of chapters would hugely help speed up the reform programme. He insisted on the current reforms, saying the conditions must be set up in which the EU will be the dominant issue in Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a system that will ensure equality for all. The biggest part of all that is reform of the electoral law, he said, adding that if they succeeded in amending that law, it would help ensure long-term stability in the country.
Čović said the law should be amended by the end of the year, and 2018 is an election year in Bosnia-Herzegovina with general elections scheduled for the autumn.
The Bosnian chairman added that the aim was to launch an action plan for joining NATO by the end of the year. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)