US and European Union officials resumed talks on electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday in a meeting with parliamentarians gathered in the Inter-Agency Working Group in charge of changes to the Election Law.

Matthew Palmer, the US special envoy for the Western Balkans who met the political leaders on Sunday, said after the meeting with the working group that it is necessary to invite the civil sector and the Central Election Commission to join the group so they can work together and improve the fairness and transparency of the elections before the next election cycle.

He assessed the meeting that he and European External Action Service Director for Western Europe, Western Balkans, Turkey and Great Britain, Angelina Eichhorst had with the working group today as successful.

“Representatives of the inter-agency group have a task and duty to work on the improvement of electoral legislation and to strengthen the trust of citizens in the election process, and that's what we hope to achieve,” Palmer was quoted as saying.

“2021 is the year to make changes. It is necessary to implement constitutional reforms to enable the implementation of all relevant rulings of the European Court of Human Rights but also to improve the election process implementation,” he added.

There is a need for many changes, he said, one of them being transparency in the elections.

“We call on the inter-agency group to engage the profession in sense of the Central Election Commission and the civil sector, so that the fairness and transparency are improved for the next elections,” the US diplomat was quoted as saying.

The meeting was also attended by US Ambassador to BiH Eric Nelson and Head of the EU Delegation in BiH Johann Sattler.

Palmer and Eichorst arrived in BiH on July 3 and the main focus of the meetings with Bosnian leaders and officials are constitutional and electoral reforms, which are among the top priorities on Bosnia's path to EU membership.

The officials are set to meet BiH Presidency members later during the day.