Reforms in Bosnia are possible when there is political will, and the evidence of this is in the elections in Mostar where residents were able to choose their local authorities after 12 years, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said Tuesday, following the EU-BiH Stabilisation and Association Council attended by the EU delegation and the BiH delegation headed by the Chairman of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers Zoran Tegeltija.

He also noted that the progress in reforms needed for Bosnia’s EU accession has been limited and called on BiH leadership to intensify efforts in the coming months in order to move the country closer to EU integration.
The two delegations discussed the need to have an inclusive process of Bosnia’s electoral reform.

“The reform would eliminate all forms of inequality and discrimination, including at constitutional level where necessary. The European Commission is ready to deliver, including on the candidate status provided that BiH also delivers with concrete results on fulfilling the key priorities,” Borrell said.

Borrell noted his expectation that BiH will make the most of the months ahead to demonstrate that it takes the EU integration seriously.

“This includes adopting important rule-of-law and judicial reforms and launching a debate on the constitutional and electoral debate to comply with the requirement of the EU membership. This means full compliance with the European Court for Human Rights rulings and ensuring equal representation in the country for all. It also means ensuring the functionality of state institutions so that they are able to eventually participate effectively in European Union decision-making and to enforce the EU acquis,” Borrell said.

He also touched upon the 26th Srebrenica genocide anniversary on July 11, saying that “attempts to revise history, to deny genocide and war crimes, or glorification of war criminals have no place in Europe, they must stop and certainly will not be tolerated.”

Bosnian prime minister Zoran Tegeltija said a lot has happened over the past three years like the pandemic which had made the efforts to improve the cooperation with the EU and to improve the living conditions in BiH much harder.

“We used this meeting to present our view of the previous period on what BiH has done to meet the conditions defined by the European Commission opinion, and we believe that we have done a lot in 2020 and that we are ready to do even more credible measures in 2021 to give BiH candidate status,” Tegeltija said.

“When it comes to the measures that we have implemented, there is no complete agreement on whether that is enough or not. We believe that we have done a sufficient number of measures, that we are not the best student in the process of joining the EU, but we have certainly done as many measures as possible to qualify for a successful process and to grant BiH the candidate status,” he added

Tegeltija pointed out that he understands the obligations from the EU Questionnaire, but also asks for verification of what has been done so far. He added that he also believes that too much burden has been placed on BiH when it comes to migration.