Do your visit and the event you will attend mean that Commissioner Füle’s announcements on EU stepping up its work in BiH re fight against corruption are being implemented?

Yes, it does. As you know, a seminar on setting priorities to expand the EU-BiH Structured Dialogue on Justice to additional rule of law matters is being planned for Friday 7 March in Sarajevo. It has the objective to identify priorities, in various areas related to the entrenchment of the rule of law with the contribution of the civil society. We expect that among the issues raised, anti-corruption policies will be high on the agenda. This was one clear message that representatives from civil society already channelled to Commissioner Füle during his visit to BiH in February. In addition to anti-corruption policies, discussions will also cover other potential reform priorities, including in the field of fundamental rights, home affairs and fights against organised crime.
 
Allow me to stress that this does not entail any formal “opening of chapters”, i.e. opening of accession negotiations as some media have reported, but means a renewed engagement in the most challenging areas to be dealt with special attention in the complex BiH system of governance for the coming weeks and months. This has also been done in other potential candidate countries, where a structured engagement on the rule of law is in place.

Following this upcoming priority setting exercise, the EU will continue to closely monitor developments and accompany relevant reform processes, which are expected to further guarantee the entrenchment of the rule of law and stability of institutions for the benefit of all citizens throughout BiH.

The EU maintains a strong commitment to maintain a proper and consistent involvement of the civil society, which will have a crucial role in this seminar as well as in future endeavours in this framework.

How much the corruption harms European path of BiH?

The European Commission stated in its 2013 Progress Report that corruption remains widespread throughout the public and private sector and that it continues to negatively impact all spheres of life, economic development and the rule of law. Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are currently paying a high price for corruption – political costs, social costs and economic costs of corruption are a heavy burden on people’s lives. These concerns were rightfully at the heart of the recent protests. The political cost of corruption is the lack of political trust. The social cost is greater inequality, exclusion, and reduced social capital. And the economic cost are less revenue income, reduced growth, higher consumer prices, higher investment costs, a bigger informal sector and reduced competition.
 
Overall targeted support of the EU to the fight against corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina amounts currently to about 11 million EUR. EU experts worked together with Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities to develop the Strategy and the Action plan and to make the Agency for prevention of corruption and coordination of the fight against corruption operational.
 
Since the fight against corruption can only be successful if the price for corruptive behaviour becomes higher than the advantages that it generates, we are putting a lot of support in the law enforcement sector and in the judiciary. The fight against corruption is an important component in the overall EU Support to law enforcement. The seizure of assets and the management of confiscated assets which not only hurts the criminals most, because they lose the money they have gained illegally, but which also provides resources to further finance investigations, is another top priority of current and future support.
 
What steps should BiH make in order to fight corruption?

There is an urgent need to move beyond rhetoric and tackle corruption and organised crime in earnest. There is an insufficient track record of investigation and prosecution in high-profile cases.

Bosnia and Herzegovina launched the 2009-2014 anticorruption strategy and begun to implement an action plan against corruption. Sustainability of these efforts have been assessed in the framework of the Post Visa Liberalisation Monitoring Mechanism.

Certainly greater efforts and genuine political will are needed to guarantee successful fight against corruption. While individuals are susceptible to corruption and may be involved it, the individual factor alone is not the whole solution. What does help for the future is when political actors ensure conditions that allow law enforcement agencies and other institutions to implement the law without obstruction. This would mean that corruption would decrease and the integration process would speed up.
 
Fighting corruption is not a government task alone. Without non-governmental organisations and the media an anti-corruption agenda cannot be successful. Therefore, we support projects which are implemented by civil society organisations and we think that authorities in BiH would benefit too from engaging civil society representatives. Greater efforts should be made in awareness raising.
 
The seminar we organise on Friday is an opportunity for civil society, authorities in BiH and the EU to sit together to set priorities. The civil society will have a crucial role in this seminar.

What are the consequences for BiH if those steps are not made?

A country that aspires to become a member of the European Union is expected to achieve stability of all institutions guaranteeing the rule of law and the existence of a functioning market economy. Corruption undermines both, the rule of law and a functioning market economy, which are the parameters at the heart of the enlargement process.