EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle was in a two day visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. During his visit Commissioner Füle met with members of BiH Presidency and held consultations with leaders of political parties on crucial issues regarding relations between BiH and EU as well as reforms necessary for BiH on its path of European integrations.

„We intentionally came right after the elections in order to convey two very important postelection messages. The first message is that the countries from the region, countries of West Balkan are progressing towards the EU. In all neighbouring countries there is progress on the path of European integrations apart from Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have lost time and now we have to intensify efforts so BiH would not fall behind the others. The second message to politicians that we spoke to today clearly states that regardless of coalitions and programmes they have made the EU must be a focus for everyone”, explains Štefan Füle in his address to media.

Mr Füle stated that after the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina he can see the commitment of politicians, as well as in the European Union, to make sure that BiH is a part of the enlargement process together with all other Balkan countries. He also stressed that the most important thing is to make the first step towards a functional and efficient state that will speak with one voice. “We are not imposing solutions to politicians, we want them to find the right solutions by themselves”, said Füle.

Mr Štefan Füle, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy and Minister of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr Dragan Vrankic signed today a Memorandum of Understanding on Macro-Financial Assistance of the EU to BiH worth 100 million Euros.

Dragan Vrankic thanked the Commissioner and the EU for the loan granted to BiH: “This is yet another material confirmation that the European Union stands by Bosnia and Herzegovina. This financial assistance is a part of a package that we agreed with International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other financial institutions and together with the policy that we are striving to implement represent the parts of the same platform and are connected to each other. What is important to emphasise is that we fulfilled certain goals in the arrangement with IMF as one of EU conditions which is the global fiscal framework”.

“Signing of the Memorandum on Macro-Financial Assistance to BiH and recent progress towards liberalization of visa regime are the best indicators of the European Union’s intention to help BiH on its path of EU integration”, concluded Füle.