Members of Collegiums of the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples met with the Director General for EU Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations

Members of Collegiums of the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and representatives of the PA BiH Joint Committee for European Integration met today with the Director General for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Union(EU) Christian Danielsson.

During the meeting, it was stated that our country has made significant progress towards EU membership for the last two years, to the satisfaction of both, BiH citizens and EU member states. The participants have warned on a possible slowdown of the European path of BiH caused by the political disagreements of domestic political actors that is why, as emphasized, it is necessary to strengthen common work and dialogue on all controversial political issues.

Mr. Danielsson was particularly interested in the issue of excise, the process of completing the questionnaire with a view to obtaining candidate status for the EU, the efforts to achieve regionalization of the economic space, as well as in the cooperation of the PA BiH with the European Parliament in the light of addressing the issue of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliamentary committee for Stabilization and Accession.

According to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Šefik Džaferović, there are issues about which political actors in BiH have different views, but they will continue to make efforts to reach agreement. He stressed that they will try to find an acceptable excise model because, in the opinion of experts, these duties are in the interest of citizens and raising their standards.

Talking about not adopting the Rules of Procedure of the Parliamentary Committee for Stabilization and Association, Džaferović said that a part of BiH politicians behaves as if Bosnia and Herzegovina receives the European Union in its membership and not vice versa.

Speaker of the House of Peoples, Bariša Čolak has pointed out the need to solve these issues during current year, because next year is election year in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so undoubtedly, it will be more difficult to find solutions acceptable for all. According to him, the problem is also the fact that the parliamentary majority is already questionable.

On the question of Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mladen Bosic, whether excise duties are a condition for the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union, Mr. Danielsson replied that they were not.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples, Safet Softić pointed out that the will of citizens for EU membership is not questionable, but tensions that slow down our path are very often produced. Specifically, he mentioned the referendum, debate on the day the Republika Srpska, then the revision of the judgment of the International Court in The Hague as well as the problem of excise duties in recent time.

The Chair of Joint Committee for European Integration, Nikola Lovrinović, announced a conference that will be held at the beginning of June at which everything that Bosnia and Herzegovina and its bodies have done after the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement will be considered.

During the meeting, the need for stronger economic ties in the region was emphasized since this process, as it is said, not only strengthens complementary economies, but also represents one of the formulas for a faster path towards the EU. (End)