The Speaker of the House of Peoples of the BiH PA and member of the Permanent Delegation of the BiH PA to the OSCE PA, Dr. Dragan Čović, spoke with the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Petros Eftimiu


"Confidence is returning to BiH, and the six political parties have created an atmosphere in which tough questions can be agreed upon," said the Speaker of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and member of the Permanent Delegation of the BiH PA to the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, Dr. Dragan Čović, during a meeting with the President of the OSCE PA, Petros Eftimiu.

During the meeting, organized on the margins of the eleventh winter session of the OSCE PA in Vienna, Dr. Čović pointed out that, after the formation of the Council of Ministers, very high objectives were set, one of them being that BiH should apply for EU candidate status by July this year. He emphasized that with the election to the presidency of Boris Tadić in Serbia and Ivo Josipović in Croatia, relations between the countries of the region will significantly improve, noting that Croatian accession to the EU will positive impact on BiH. "The problems are a complicated state structure which prevents functionality and tough social and economic opportunities. Large funds are allocated for administration, but should deal more with the economy and less with politics", he pointed out. He noted the example of the military industry of the former SFRY, 44 per cent of whose capacities were located in BiH, but which could now not be used because of the lack of new technology.

The President of the OSCE PA, Petros Eftimiu was interested in the relationship BiH has with the Republics of Croatia and Serbia, and offered the support of those OSCE PA areas useful for the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
During the meeting, Dr. Čović proposed incorporating the languages spoken in BiH, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro as official OSCE languages. (end)