News in English     | 13.03.2019. 18:48 |

Wigemark: Reform Agenda has expired, but BiH needs to continue with reforms

FENA Hana Imamović

SARAJEVO, March 13 (FENA) - Head of the European Union Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lars Gunnar Wigemark, met today in Sarajevo with members of the Collegium of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and talked about the continuing the reform process in the country.

After the meeting, Wigemark emphasized the special importance of the BiH Parliament when it comes to integration processes, assessing that this level of authority in the past was not always ready or was unable to adopt regulations on time, resulting in a very limited number of adopted laws.

However, for significant steps towards the full membership in the European Union, it will be necessary to adopt a whole set of regulations, rules and standards stemming from the acquis communautaire of the EU.

He identified two key issues that need to be solved as soon as possible. The first is to harmonize the Rules of Procedure that should regulate the work of the joint parliamentary body between the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and the European Parliament.

“We have been waiting for this to be done for the last three years, and for this reason, this joint parliamentary body has not had the opportunity either to meet or to harmonize any common positions or conclusions. This has become a kind of obstacle in our mutual relations,” explained Wigemark.

He added that this would be recognized as a problem in the forthcoming opinion of the European Commission on the country’s application for membership.

As the second issue he highlighted the continuation of the implementation of the socio-economic reforms because the four-year Reform Agenda has come to an end, which at the time of the adoption met certain criteria and needs, but now it is necessary to continue with the implementation of reforms.

He also expressed hope that the process of forming the authorities in BiH would soon be completed in order to proceed with the necessary reforms.

Although he does not consider it strange that the state government has not yet been formed, since there are similar examples in EU member states, but for BiH, the current moment is now more important because the state is at the intersection of whether it will continue its path to the EU or will again get into a situation where "it is moving in a circle".

“You can have the government in a technical mandate, but it does not have the same legitimacy. For true cooperation, we need to have the right partner on the other side. When writing the opinion of the European Commission on the membership application, the question arises as to whom we are to submit it if there is no new convocation of the Council of Ministers,” concluded Wigemark.

Bakir Izetbegović (SDA), Chairman of the House of Peoples of the BiH PA, confirmed that Wigemark brought with him a document containing the European Commission's opinion on the continuation of reforms in BiH.

He announced that members of the European Parliament will arrive in BiH soon, and in late March, European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn will also visit BiH.

“We will continue our cooperation. There is a consensus of the political stakeholders in BiH about the need to accelerate the EU path in this term,” Izetbegović stressed after the meeting with Wigemark.

(FENA) S. R.

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