European Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhely has called on Bosnia and Herzegovina to finally start implementing reforms that will guarantee the rule of law and are a necessary precondition for possible EU membership as well as the allocation of money from the EU's Western Balkans package.
The has to be a rule of law and a determined fight against corruption and organised crime, Varhely told a news conference in Sarajevo on Friday after meeting with Bosnia and Herzegovina Prime Minister Zoran Tegeltija.
Varhely visited Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first time as Enlargement Commissioner to present the European Commission’s economic and investment plan for financial support to the Western Balkans, unveiled earlier this week in Brussels.
The investment plan envisages the allocation of grants worth €9 billion to Western Balkan countries plus another €20 billion in favourable loans, primarily for various infrastructure projects that would connect countries in the region.
The plan could yield concrete and tangible results for all people in the region in the next four to five years, said Varhely.
The current EC has been stressing since the start of its term that the Western Balkans is a priority for the EU and that in the medium and long run the region should become fully integrated in the EU, said Varhely.
Tegeltija said that the EC’s investment plan matched the interests of his country which also wanted stronger regional connectivity, including the mini-Schengen project, and that it wanted to be a reliable partner to the EU in those projects.
Even though the latest EC progress report for Bosnia and Herzegovina seriously warns about the slow implementation of reforms or lack of them, Tegeltija is confident that all of that can change and that his country can obtain the status of EU candidate by the summer of 2021.
Bosnia and Herzegovina applied for candidate status back in 2016 but the EC has since constantly given poor grades to the measures the country’s authorities have been taking to obtain that status.
“The rule of law is our biggest problem and we understand the obligations that arise from that,” said Tegeltija.
