EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Oliver Varhelyi stated that the representatives of the Republika Srpska are part of the decision-making process and deserve credit for the reforms that allow BiH to progress on its path to the EU.
“The European Commission does not like the rhetoric used by the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, and it causes concern. However, do not forget that the representatives of Republika Srpska are in the institutions, they are part of the decision-making process, and they deserve credit for the reforms thanks to which the country can progress,” Varhelyi told reporters.
He expressed hope for a positive outcome at the European Council meeting next week, which will discuss the European Commission’s recommendation to start negotiations with BiH, adding that he could not speak about possible dates for the beginning of negotiations.
“If the proposal we submitted is accepted by the European Council, we will immediately start preparing the negotiating framework and propose it to the Council as soon as we are ready. It is hard to predict how long it will take for the Council to reach a consensus since the decision is made unanimously,” said Varhelyi.
He mentioned that changes to the Electoral Law still remain a condition for BiH’s further progress in European integration, but there is still time to enact them before the local elections.
“From our side, we see that work on this is progressing quite well, and there is still time until the local elections. We would like to see that the amendments on the integrity of the electoral process are adopted before the local elections,” Varhelyi stated.
The EU Commissioner for Enlargement highlighted positive changes in BiH after the 2022 elections, emphasizing that there is a functional political construction where representatives of the three constituent peoples have managed to agree on coalitions at all levels of government in the country.
He reminded that the Federation of BiH had not had a government or budget for five years before that.
Varhelyi presented a report on BiH to the permanent representatives of the EU member states today, which prepares for the meeting of the General Affairs Council that will discuss the European Commission’s recommendation to start negotiations with BiH on Tuesday, March 19.
EU leaders will discuss this on Thursday, March 21, and a positive decision requires the consent of all member states.
Varhelyi expressed hope for a positive outcome, stating that the discussion with ambassadors was very positive.
When asked whether he expects resistance from some member states to opening negotiations with BiH, Varhelyi said that the European Commission’s report was prepared very carefully and that they were attentive to the mood of the member states.
He emphasized that BiH still has a lot of work to do.
Source: RTRS
