Minister Pusić discusses EU assistance for BiH, Solidarity Fund for Gorski Kotar

(Hina) The EU believes that social discontent is the main cause of mass protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is aware that it should provide more efficient and faster assistance

(Hina) The EU believes that social discontent is the main cause of mass protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is aware that it should provide more efficient and faster assistance in dealing with the difficult economic situation in the country, Croatia's Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusić said in Zagreb on Wednesday.

"There is awareness in the EU that the entire situation should be looked at more broadly and that faster and more efficient action has to be taken. There is also awareness that regardless of the mixed composition of participants in the developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the economic situation is difficult and that that fact should be dealt with," Pusić told reporters.

She said that Croatia, which shares a 1,000-kilometre-long border with Bosnia, would discuss the situation in the neighbouring country both with European partners and the United States, but that it believed it was a European issue.

"We believe Bosnia and Herzegovina is a real European issue and that it is Europe's duty to help it overcome the current situation," said Pusić who earlier this week attended a meeting of EU foreign and European affairs ministers discussing the unrest in Bosnia.

Pusić said the EU was one of the few authorities accepted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but that for a long time it had approached the country's European integration by setting conditions and demanding the settlement of concrete issues so that the process of the country's integration with the EU could start.

"We believe it would be simpler to launch a process tailored to suit Bosnia and Herzegovina, just as in case of Serbia and Kosovo the issue of mutual recognition has become an integral part of the process and is no longer a precondition for its beginning," Pusić said.

The minister added that such a plan, which was already being discussed in Brussels, would include instruments available to EU institutions.

"The EU cannot come to a country and decide on its internal configuration, but it can set criteria for the functioning of the state institutions and criteria for internal integration which runs in parallel to the country's integration with the EU."

Pusić added that the EU was not a policeman and could not impose on anyone, especially not on a non-EU country, criteria for its internal organisation.

"But it can create conditions which are attractive to that country and its people and to which they aspire. That is the EU's main instrument of power," said Pusić.

Press releases