The Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, officially handed over his country's supplementary questionnaire to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, and the Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, on Monday 4 March.
Using this questionnaire, the Commission will draw up an opinion that will help Member States to decide whether or not to grant candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Speaking to the press, Mr Hahn said that the Commission was considering publishing this opinion under its current mandate, i.e. before the end of October 2019.
The questionnaire returned is incomplete, as some questions have been left unanswered; for Mr Dodik, this, itself, is an answer. According to Mr Hahn, the majority of questions that are still open, focus on education. He specified that the Commission would be in contact with the Bosnian authorities in order to obtain “substantive” answers to these questions.
The Commissioner has already issued a warning that Member States will, beyond the Commission's opinion, take into account “the general political atmosphere in the country”. He therefore called for the formation of a government “as fast as possible” to “take care of all the necessary reform efforts”. Mr Dodik wanted to appear reassuring. According to him, government institutions will be established by the end of March.
Similarly, while Mr Hahn reiterated the importance for the country of agreeing on an end to roaming charges with the various countries in the region, Mr Dodik announced that Bosnia and Herzegovina should sign the same agreement that other countries of the Western Balkans region will be signing on 5 April 2019.
When asked about the Republika Srpska's desire for separatism, of which he is a political figure, Mr Dodik said that “no one was working on a secession”. “In any case, we should not be silent on this subject”, he added, explaining that part of public opinion was waiting for this secession. He stated that he was in favour of respecting the Dayton agreements.
In addition, Mr Hahn announced that he would visit Bosnia and Herzegovina by the end of the month. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)