Minister Pusić: Bosnia’s EU association could start by year’s end

First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusić is participating in a Foreign Affairs Council meeting on the situation in Iraq, Syria, the Western Balkans, the adoption of conclusions on Bosnia and Herzegovina and fighting the Ebola epidemic in Africa

First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusić is participating in a Foreign Affairs Council meeting on the situation in Iraq, Syria, the Western Balkans, the adoption of conclusions on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and fighting the Ebola epidemic in Africa.

Ahead of the session, Pusić said that the new initiative for BiH, launched by Croatia and later on accepted by Germany and Britain, had since become a European initiative. “As is well known, the new approach doesn’t lower the criteria but rearranges their order. In other words, BiH can break the standstill. It is no longer paralyzed by too high criteria that it can’t even begin the process, which has now begun,” Pusić said.

The minister said it would be ambitious, but achievable if the new government applied BiH for membership and received a positive opinion from the European Commission. “If it succeeds in that, and I think it’s possible, it will set BiH on the right track in many different ways, not just in terms of membership but in stabilizing institutions and a more efficient decision-making,” she said.

Pusić said Croatia would insist that one of the key criteria be the implementation of the agreement on growth and employment, as one could not expect political results without first creating the conditions of existence. The minister added that the association process could begin this year if the parliament passed the necessary reforms, which a precondition for launching the Stabilization and Association Agreement. 

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