prijava
BRDO NEAR KRANJ, May 17 (FENA) - In the past ten years of its existence, the Brdo-Brioni Process has established itself as an important platform for regional cooperation and dialogue aimed at resolving open issues and improving relations. The significance of this process is also in promoting the European perspective of the Western Balkans, said BiH Presidency member Šefik Džaferović in his address at today's meeting of the leaders of the Brdo-Brioni Process.
According to him, since 2013, when this format of the Brdo-Brioni Process has started, there have been major changes at the international and then regional level. Political tensions, conflicts and humanitarian crises on the edges of Europe and in its neighborhood, then mass migration waves, and the debate on the internal relations of the European Union itself, have brought a certain dose of depression to the European public. This particularly affected the process of European and Euro-Atlantic integration, as the most significant narrative in the past seven decades in Europe.
“Since the establishment of this form of the Brdo-Brioni Process, when Croatia became a member of the European Union, no other country in this part of Europe has obtained EU membership, which clearly testifies to the crisis of enlargement. The accession of Montenegro and North Macedonia to NATO, and the announced opening of negotiations on the accession of Albania and North Macedonia to the EU have brought a certain amount of optimism to the region. However, these processes are not going fast enough, which raised doubts about the readiness of the European Union to continue the enlargement process,” said Džaferović.
He warned that it is certain that political tensions have intensified in recent years, and that there is not enough enthusiasm to implement the necessary reforms.
“All this leads to the opening of debates that we thought were way back in the past of the 1930s or 1990s. Europe and the Western Balkans can and must do better than that,” he said.
He assessed that the perspective of the membership of our countries in the European Union in the past decades represented the best and irreplaceable framework for strengthening peace, stabilization and realization of common aspirations for prosperity.
“The achieved level of regional dialogue and cooperation is not at the desired level, but it helped to overcome certain problems or at least to initiate a dialogue on their solution. Most of the good things that have happened in the region are the result of the European integration, which indicates how powerful and important this process is,” he said.
He stressed that Bosnia and Herzegovina wants good relations with all countries in the region and, within that, good relations with its neighbors.
“We want cooperation, correct and friendly relations, which will be based on the principle of mutual respect and reciprocity. We ask that all open issues be resolved through dialogue and agreement, and if an agreement is not possible, then with the participation of institutions of international law,” he stated.
(FENA) A. B.
