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SARAJEVO, February 9 (FENA) - The four principles underpinning the new European Commission proposal for enlargement methodology include more or less all key elements of the process so far, which have been further strengthened and elaborated. Director of the Directorate for European Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Edin Dilberović expressed hope that this will add to the new momentum in the process of accession of the Western Balkan countries to the European Union.
Author: Hana Imamović
"The EU and its Member States have set club membership rules before, and those who wish to join the club must abide by them. This rule also applies to BiH, and when the EU decides on new "rules of the game" BiH will have to play by those rules," Dilberović said in an interview with FENA.
The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a new methodology for accession negotiations, according to which the whole process needs to be more credible, predictable, more dynamic and more politically driven.
However, Dilberović emphasizes that the implementation of the enhanced accession process, what effects it will have and how stimulating it will be for the countries in the process could only be evaluated when it gets implemented in practice.
Asked if such a new approach could mean more rigorous conditions for accession, Dilberović said that this would not happen because the criteria for EU membership were set by the Treaty on European Union and the so-called Copenhagen and Madrid criteria and those criteria must be met by all countries that want to become members of the European Union.
Referring to the sanctions envisaged by the new proposal, such as suspending negotiations in certain areas, or in the most serious cases, suspension of negotiations, Dilberović emphasizes that within the principle of predictability of the process, the European Commission in its proposal talks about "reversibility" and the possibility of stopping the state's movement towards the next stage of the process.
However, it recalls that the European Commission and the Member States have so far had similar mechanisms in place, such as the possibility that a closed chapter may be reopened if it is found that a country has not fulfilled an obligation.
"Also, under this principle, the Commission is saying that it will provide countries with clarity on what the EU expects from them at different stages of the process and tangible incentives for the completed work," he explained.
When it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dilberović believes that all attention at this point should be focused on meeting the priorities of the Opinion and the EC Report, especially in the part of the political criteria, as this is the minimum set by the EU in the Opinion of the European Commission to open negotiations on the accession.
"What is crucial for BiH in the current accession framework and in light of the proposed new methodology is to achieve and demonstrate concrete results in meeting the key Opinion priorities and short-term priorities of the Analytical Report, which the EU General Affairs Council endorsed at the end of last year," he added.
It is particularly important, he notes, to make use of the time and opportunity by spring 2020, when the European Commission will release a new enlargement package, of which the regular annual report on Bosnia and Herzegovina will form an integral part.
"In that report, the Commission will give an assessment of what has been done in BiH related to the recommendations on the next steps in the EU accession process," Edin Dilberović, Director of the Directorate for European Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, concluded in an interview with FENA.
Nikola Lovrinović (HDZ), Chairman of the Joint Commission for European Integration of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said in a statement to FENA that the positive side is that it is now obvious that the enlargement process will continue and that fears that it will be stopped have been removed.
"It is certain that the EU will insist on the credibility and operational readiness of the implementation of reforms, but membership in the European Union is something that we all want," said Lovrinović.
(FENA) S. R.
