Pusić and Lagumdžija advocate new EU approach to Bosnia

(Hina) - Croatian and Bosnian foreign ministers Vesna Pusić and Zlatko Lagumdžija said in Sarajevo on Friday that the search would continue for a new European Union approach to Bosnia and Herzegovina

(Hina) - Croatian and Bosnian foreign ministers Vesna Pusić and Zlatko Lagumdžija said in Sarajevo on Friday that the search would continue for a new European Union approach to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) that would help it draw closer to the EU and implement the required reforms.

Pusić was on a day-long working visit to BiH. She said the entire region's drawing closer to the EU was becoming increasingly important in the new geopolitical circumstances and that, in terms of Croatian interests, this particularly applied to BiH, with which it was lastingly tied.

"The stability of one country has a big influence on the stability of the other," she said, adding that this was why the EU should change its approach to BiH.

"The existing approach hasn't helped BiH make any progress and we are interested in BiH making headway towards Union membership," Pusić said, adding that "absolutely everyone" in the EU was aware of the need for a new approach.

"A discussion on that must be something EU member states launch together and then it will be a real initiative," she said, adding that this did not mean lowering the membership criteria, only turning the accession negotiations into a stabilisation process, which could mean even "additional benchmarks and (negotiation) chapters".

"High criteria make no sense if it's evident that they won't be reached and met," Pusić said, adding that it was therefore necessary to help BiH reach those criteria.

She went on to say that the situation in Ukraine had overshadowed the problems in BiH, but that this could help to understand that it was important to react in time, because it had become apparent that a small problem could turn into a big one, which was why it was important to raise now the issue of BiH's EU integration.

Asked about discussions about a third entity in BiH, held also in Croatia, Pusić said various people were freely expressing their opinions which did not reflect Croatia's official policy.

Lagumdžija said "a more creative approach" of the EU towards BiH, as well as of BiH to the EU, was jointly being sought. He called Pusić "a promoter of Bosnia and Herzegovina's European future," saying the Croatian initiative for a new European approach to BiH, which Sarajevo also wanted, was a reflection of that.

"To us it's important that as many EU member states as possible support the need for a new approach to BiH at the upcoming meeting of the Union's Foreign Affairs Council in April," he said, adding that he too advocated a new approach. BiH was to have been on the Council's agenda earlier this month but the discussion was postponed because of the Ukraine crisis, which is the EU's number one foreign priority.

"Our positions complement each other," Lagumdžija said, adding that the outlines of a new approach were becoming visible.

He said the months ahead would be marked by an election campaign in BiH and that it would be good if it revolved around swift EU integration. He said his country was not asking to be "cut some slack" and that it was willing to do all the "homework" but that one should consider which issues to address first.

"Perhaps a new EU approach would open a new page on which people would see hope instead of hopelessness and gloominess," Lagumdžija said, suggesting that social, economic and rule of law issues should be dealt with before the October election.

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