Štefan Füle, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy  visited Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday, 18 March 2010, for the first time since being appointed to the new European Commission in November last year.

During his one-day visit to BiH, Commissioner Füle met with representatives of the BiH authorities to discuss the European integration  and visa liberalization process, and the need to reach agreement on BiH constitutional amendments, as well as the need to adopt  the Law on Population and Household Census .

Commissioner Füle also met with the High Representative and EU Special Representative Valentin Inzko, and Heads of the EU diplomatic missions accredited to BiH.

Chairman of the Council of Ministers Nikola Špirić informed Commissioner Füle that BiH  fulfilled all the Road-map conditions for visa regime liberalization, noting that BiH has received positive assessments for fulfilling these conditions for the first three blocks..

CoM Chairman Špirić also briefed Commissioner Füle on the steps that have been taken by the BiH Council of Ministers to implement the European Court of Human Rights ruling in the case of “Finci and Sejdić versus BiH.”, as well as on the efforts made to adopt the Law on census which should take place next year.

Chairman Špirić added that he informed Commissioner Füle on the efforts of BiH authorites to fulfill the requirements from the IMF Stand-by arrangement. The European Commission has indicated earlier that it is ready to provide 100 million Euros to support development projects in BiH as long as the Stand-by requirements are met.

Commissioner Füle said that he and Chairman Špirić had reached a high degree of agreement on the most issues. He informed Chairman Spiric  that internal consultations are ongoing in the European Commission with regard to liberalisation of visa regime for BiH citizens, and consultaion with the EU Memebr states will follow.  Commissioner estimates that by the middle of April, the European Commission would present its report on  Bosnia and Herzegovina’s fulfillemt of the visa liberalisation requirements which will then be forwarded to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament for adoption.

Speaking about the necessity of harmonisation of the BiH Constitution  with the ruling by the European Court for Human Rights, European Commissioner for Enlargement said he appreciates the Action plan adopted by the BiH Council of Ministers for the  implementation of the ruling from Finci-Sejdici case, stressing the importance of amending the constitution before the elections, so as to uphold the integrity of the democratic process.

“It is very important to implement these changes before October so that the legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is consistent with the ruling of the European Court for Human Rights.” he told reporters after his meeting with Chairman Špirić. He added that the October elections are very important for BiH because they will mark its move from Dayton age to the European age.

Commissioner Füle said that he expects from the BiH authorities to reach agreement on the Law on census so it could take place in 2011 as in all the other European countries.

Responding to journalists’ questions, he said that he believes all the countries in the region have a clear European perspective, but that each country is at a different stage in reaching this goal.

Commissioner Füle’s visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of a week-long tour in the region which also included Serbia and Kosovo.