Dnevni avaz: Countries of west Balkans, including also Bosnia and Herzegovina, have a clear perspective of membership in the European Union. This was pointed out in the two day meeting on a high level, which was organized by the European Parliament in Brussels.
Call for lobbying
The Conference, attended by the highest officials of the EU, among which were the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, the Chairman of the EU Council Janez Janša, the Speaker of the European Parliament Hans Gert Poettering, the European commissioner for enlargement Oili Rehn, as well as the representatives of the parliaments of the countries of the region, discussed the matter of enlargement of the Union to the west Balkans.
BH representative at the conference, Niko Lozančić, chairman of the House of Representative of the BH Parliament, in his statement from Brussels for the “Avaz” estimated that it was a very significant gathering, which was organized on this topic for the first time after several years.
I am satisfied that a lot of affirmative evaluations of BiH have been stated, which lately achieved an enormous progress. There are expectations that it will continue further on – said Lozančić.
He spoke first day of work, on Monday, when, as he says, “he asked for support for BiH and expressed expectation that the EU will help BiH to maintain the pace of progress”.
I especially have to point out that I invited the members of the European Parliament to lobby in their countries for abolishment of visa regime, because there is no justified reason to have this restrictive regime. To my happiness and joy, I got the support of the representatives in Brussels – said Lozančić.
Internal reforms
Some of the European parliamentarians, among which German Gisela Kallenbach, asked from Barroso and Janša to give all the countries of west Balkans the candidate status, and to require in that phase the fulfillment of conditions. Lozančić confirmed that was talked about as well.
But, I am not convinced that it is possible in this moment to ensure that. For BiH the most important thing is that we sign the SAA and continue with the reforms – told us Lozančić.
Besides him, in the BH delegation was also Mladen Ivanić, vice chairman of the House of Peoples of BiH.
The President of the European Commission Barroso in his statement stressed that the EU, in spite internal reforms, still decided to continue enlargement and the countries “need to be clear on how important decision it is”.
Closed circle
Slovenian prime minister, Janez Janša, as the chairman of the EU Council, said that the Stabilization and Association Agreement between the EU and BiH will close the circle, which opens the road to membership in the EU.