Country Report presented to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH

Head of the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina and EU Special Representative, Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, officially handed over the European Commission’s 2016 Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

During the meeting with members of the Collegium of the House of Representatives, with the Speaker Mladen Bosić, his deputy Šefik Džaferović and deputy Borjana Krišto, as well as with the Chair of Croat People Caucus in the House of People Ljiljana Zovko, Ambassador Wigemark pointed out to the positive sides, as well as the segments of Report in which stagnation is asserted. At the same time, he congratulated to the BiH Parliamentary Assembly to the increased activity and the positive role it played in the reform process.

Expressing his gratitude to the support to work of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, Mladen Bosić emphasized that this state institutions is factor of stabilization which despite political problems attempts to fulfill its role and works on the adoption of European standards, not in order to access the EU, but for the welfare of citizens of BiH.

According to Šefik Džaferović, the fact is that in the previous period the backset on the European path has been removed and that the Parliamentary Assembly in that process had a very positive role. He added, however, that it is not good that the Rules of Procedure of the Parliamentary Committee for Stabilization and Association, which represents a common forum for the exchange of views of members of European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, has not been adopted.

Pointing out on the fact that the part of the Report is dedicated to the problems in the functioning of public media service, Borjana Krišto stressed that BiH cannot speak about free public services, nor about their objective work. Therefore, media are often a generator of problems, instead of being a support to positive process. She stressed the necessity to systematic solutions, in order to make media a service of all people and citizens, and to represent a real support to positive process, and for the importance of quality control of the media, stressed Mrs. Ljiljana Zovko also. (end)