In an initiative presented at the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday 22 March by Croatian Minister Gordan Grlić Radman, six EU Member States called for Bosnia and Herzegovina to remain firmly in the EU’s sights.
In this four-page document seen by EUROPE, Croatia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary and Slovenia have explained that the political issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina “deserve strong attention to be paid by the EU Council and the European Council”.
They therefore propose a series of actions to help the country – which applied for EU membership in 2016 – to “finally progress towards its European goal” and achieve candidate status “as soon as possible”.
For the six Member States, there is also a need to intensify political dialogue with the country at a ministerial level. In particular, dialogue on the rule of law should be strengthened “to encourage reforms”. Similarly, the Stabilisation and Association Agreement should be fully used in order to steer sectoral reforms and ensure a more structured policy dialogue.
With general elections scheduled for 2022, the six Member States are calling on the EU to ensure that these elections are conducted in accordance with European standards and on the basis of OSCE/ODIHR and Venice Commission recommendations, in order that the country “immediately embarks on a reform of the electoral law to avoid future manipulation of the electoral process”.
They also called for increased cooperation in the field of migration and security, saying that “a new global strategy for migration and asylum must be established as a matter of priority”. The six states have additionally called for increased assistance regarding the economic reform agenda in order to assist the country to move closer to a functioning market economy.
Finally, Europeans should increase their technical support through bilateral and EU instruments, focusing on the most urgent issues. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)