On 11 October 2007, the Directorate for European Integration (DEI) organised a seminar on EU Conditionality in the framework of the EU-funded technical assistance project funded through the CARDS programme.
The seminar brought together DEI staff and other government stakeholders, representatives of NGOs and members of academia, as well as members of the diplomatic corps, so as to enhance understanding of the concept and mechanisms of conditionality and to promote a joint discussion on the subject.
Mr. Osman Topcagic, Director of the Directorate for European Integration, summarised the reforms implemented in BiH since the “Road Map” in terms of laws and institutions, reminding the participants that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) technical negotiations were completed in the foreseen timeframe but cannot be signed due to the outstanding issue of police reform. He added that the Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement (the “EU-15”) do not always understand the sheer scope of reforms that more recent members had to implement in a shorter period than acceding countries did in the past.
Ambassador Dimitris Kourkoulas, Head of Delegation of the European Commission to BiH, stated that conditionality could seem a misleading term as it implies imposition from a stronger party on a weaker party: in the context of enlargement he sees it as a positive influence which the EU exerts so to foster policy choices in the candidate countries and to strengthen their relations with neighbouring countries. He trusts that this is strong enough to help the Western Balkan countries, and BiH, to overcome the problems created following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The challenge for BiH is to find innovative ways of using the attractiveness of EU membership to overcome specific problems. For example, it is not just relations with neighbours but between citizens of the same country which requires consolidation.
Dr. Klaudijus Maniokas presented an overview of EU conditionality and “Europeanisation” in Central and Eastern Europe based on his experience as Lithuania’s Chief Negotiator.
Mrs. Malinka Ristevska Jordanova, State Counsellor in the Secretariat for European Affairs of the government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, presented the specific experiences with conditionality in her country, so to share lessons learned.
Dr. Antoaneta Dimitrova, lecturer at the University of Leiden specialising in the EU’s role in democratization in Europe, EU conditionality, EU enlargement and institutional change, etc., spoke about the promise and limits of EU conditionality as a tool for reform.
The seminar included working groups and practical work assignments.
