Bevanda – Füle: BIH Aims to Get Closer to EU Membership

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BIH Vjekoslav Bevanda met with European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle and his assistants. 

At the meeting, Commissioner Füle expressed his dissatisfaction with the efforts made thus far on the implementation of the Sejdić-Finci ruling, and informed Chairman Bevanda that he will not be able to seek solution to the issue any longer  and that the BIH Institutions, Council of Europe and European Union Foreign Affairs Council will take over the initiative. He said that this visit marks the completion of his engagement on the issue of implementation of the Euroepan Court for Human Rights ruling.

Chairman Bevanda thanked to Commissioner Füle for his engagement to date, reiterating the commitment of the Council of Ministers of BIH to continue along the European road, and emphasised the readiness to keep taking needed efforts with a view at approximation to the EU membership.

The interlocutors agreed that citizens have right to demonstrate because of the poor economic and political situation in the state, but they do not have right to demolish and set fire to  property that is a common good and which is used by all citizens of BIH. They said that they fully support the civic initiative if it is in conformity with the laws and regulations and if it results in setting reasonable requirements to BIH authorities.

Commissioner Füle informed Chairman Bevanda that he will attend the EBRD Prime Ministers Conference in London on Monday (February 24, 2014), and announced for that occasion proposing new ideas for overcoming the issues and starting-up dialogue with BIH.

Today’s meeting was attended by Deputy Head of Office of Commissioner Füle Jana Katarina Lolić Šindelkova, Head of Delegation of the European Union in BIH and EU Special Representative in BIH Peter Sorensen, Head of Directorate for Albania, BIH, Serbia and Kosovo Jean Eric Paquet, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation in BIH Renzo Daviddi, Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Željka Cvijanović, Prime Minister of the Federation of BIH Nermin Nikšić and Head of Directorate for European Integrations Nevenka Savić.

(end)