On 18 December 2007, a new brochure was presented in the Austrian Embassy by H. E. Dr. Werner Almhofer, Austrian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ambassador Dimitris Kourkoulas, Head of Delegation of the European Commission to BiH and Mrs. Anela Alihodzic, Deputy-Director in the Directorate for European Integration participated in the presentation.
Ambassador Almhofer stressed that even the citizens of EU countries sometimes do not know how the EU functions, what it has achieved for them, which problems the EU deals with or what changes the EU is facing in the future. He hopes that this brochure will provide university and school students in BiH with answers to these, and many other questions, as the younger generation is the one for which the road to the EU is of the most importance and benefit. Only those who understand the rules will be able to play a significant role in Europe. Thus, this brochure should contribute to the ultimate goal – membership in the EU, not as a far away vision, but as a realistic task that BiH can achieve.
Ambassador Kourkoulas, expressed his satisfaction with the brochure, which will help the younger generation to have a clear view of the EU and BiH’s role in it. He stressed that the future of BiH is, without a doubt, in Europe. The European perspective of BiH was emphasized with the recent initialling of the SAA, which will in turn bring about concrete advantages such as jobs and better living conditions. Joining the EU requires the engagement of society as a whole: to help in this demanding task, the Delegation of the European Commission has opened five info-centres which disseminate the necessary information.
Mrs. Anela Alihodzic expressed her gratitude to Ambassador Almhofer and Ambassador Kourkoulas for all their help in informing BiH citizens about the EU, and stressed that some schools and faculties have already held a lecture on the EU’s social system and laws, adding that BiH citizens must be informed of EU laws, what they entail, what they offer, and what BiH citizens eventually gain from them.
