European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Štefan Füle, visited Sarajevo on 17 February to continue efforts to help BiH political leaders to find an agreement needed to move BiH forward on its EU integration path. Unfortunately after hours of talks, the meeting with the leaders failed to produce an agreement on the implementation of the judgement in the case ‘Sejdic and Finci vs Bosnia and Herzegovina’.

At the press conference, Commissioner Füle stated:

“Unfortunately, the politicians of this country failed to make necessary the compromises to move BiH forward on the EU integration path. I am disappointed; the EU is disappointed about this. Our offer to BiH to become an EU member state is genuine. EU integration is the best option for BiH, economically, socially and politically.”

“Implementation of Sejdic-Finci judgement is not a remote issue or virtual issue. It is an international obligation of Bosnia and Herzegovina that, following the will of the Member States, is now a key to progress on the EU path. It has real consequences. It means the full entry into force of your Stabilisation and Association Agreement. It means the possibility for Bosnia and Herzegovina to submit a credible application for EU membership,” Füle concluded.

Commissioner Füle announced that nonetheless, the European Commission will focus on the main actions from the Enlargement Strategy 2013-14 which proposed a new approach to help all the enlargement countries including BiH tackle the economic fundamentals first and help them meet the economic criteria. The new approach implies a change in the dialogue and improved reporting in order to give clearer guidance on the reforms needed to support long-term growth and competitiveness.

In addition to meeting with political party leaders, the day after the meeting Commissioner Füle also met with the Chair of the BiH Council of Ministers, Vjekoslav Bevanda, Entity Prime Ministers Nermin Niksic and Zeljka Cvijanovic, as well as with civil society representatives, including citizens involved in the work of ‘plenums’ in Tuzla and Sarajevo.

The aim of the meeting with civil society was to hear various perspectives from BiH society in light of recent protests and the failure of BiH political leaders to implement of the Sejdic – Finci judgment. Civil society leaders expressed the view that the protests showed that socio-economic issues and corruption were the main issues that need to be addressed and identified BiH political leaders as the main obstacles to achieving the reform.

The text of the press conference by Commissioner Füle is available here:
http://archive.europa.ba/News.aspx?newsid=6115&lang=EN 

Background of the European Commission’s new approach on economic governance in enlargement countries is available here:
http://archive.europa.ba/News.aspx?newsid=6123&lang=EN