On 15 February, the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina hosted a group of forty students from all over the region enrolled in the European Regional Master’s in Democracy and Human Rights programme at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies (CIPS). As part of its longstanding engagement with civil society and youth in the candidate and potential candidate countries, the EU is funding this program through Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA). The presentation aimed at presenting the activities and goals of the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina with special emphasis on the changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty.
Johann Hesse, Head of the Operations Section for Economic Development, Natural Resources and Infrastructures, described the Delegation’s role in coordinating activities of the embassies of EU Member States present in the country as well as the support provided to the BiH authorities in order to fulfil the economic priorities of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA). He also explained the Delegation’s role in preparing the Progress Reports and outlined the basic objectives and criteria for the allocation of the IPA funds.
As stressed by Mr Hesse, the ultimate goal of the IPA funds allocated in the field of social development is to fulfil EU political and economic requirements contained in the Copenhagen criteria, align the BiH society with the EU standards and improve cross-border cooperation. For these purposes, Component I “Transition Assistance and Institution Building” and component II “Cross-Border Co-operation” are already accessible for BiH in the IPA 2007-2013. The other three components – regional development, human resources development and rural development – will be accessible when the country becomes a candidate for EU membership.
Natalia Dianiskova, Head of the Operations Section for Social Development, Civil Society and Cross-border Cooperation outlined the priorities and flagship projects of her section with particular emphasis in the fields of social and democratic development and human rights.
She pointed out that although Bosnia and Herzegovina has incorporated in its legislation the major international covenants, the challenges ahead relate to an effective implementation that could ultimately have an impact in the daily life of BiH citizens. Thus she highlighted that her section’s priorities are paged to support the country’s efforts to comply with minimum social standards, facilitate the access of unemployed people to the labour market and improve the conditions for health and safety at work in compliance with the EU acquis communautaire. She presented social inclusion of Roma communities and development of local democracy at the grass-root level as examples of the EU approach in this field.
