“A new impetus for the European integration of the Western Balkans” is the name of the international conference which was hed in Sarajevo for examining ways to give a new stimulus to the European integration of the region.
As speakers at the conference said, the event is organized in the moment when the new impetus of the EU towards the region can really be felt considering there is a series of new, very serious initiatives.
The conference was organized by the Austrian-French Center, the French Center for International Relations, the Central European Initiative which is presided by Austria and the embassies of France and Austria in BiH.
The Secretary-General of the Austro French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe Peter Jankowitsch opened the conference saying that he will talk about the process of activities that will help the EU to meet the challenges in order to fulfill the needs and overcome the fatigue of EU enlargement and enable countries in the region to join the Union.
He stressed that the conference is taking place in Sarajevo in order sent a message from this city that “we belong to each other and that we belong to Europe.”
Aid to BiH Minister of Foreign Affairs Amer Kapetanović recalled that the new initiative includes is a new strategy of enlargement, which contains three pillars of approach to the Balkans. It refers to the rule of law, economic sustainability and strengthening public administration.
Kapetanović said that there is a German-French initiative which began in Berlin two months ago and that is the latest initiative of Germany and Great Britain for BiH which is why there is this new impetus and impulses from EU for BiH but it is up to BiH to benefit from it.
The Former High Representative to BiH, Wolfgang Petritsch, who is attending the conference, said that these EU initiatives will be more focused on BiH and emphasizes that there has been geopolitical changes which is why the EU does not want the system of “paralysis” to continue in BiH
“Now we have a new Commission and the leadership of the European Commission in Brussels, and election were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and this conference is held which is why I think this is a good start for finding better ways to faster rapprochement to the European Union,” said Petritsch .
Asked whether the new government will be able to respond to these challenges, Petritsch said he hoped that the BiH politicians will realize that it is time to move forward and that they can no longer sacrifice people, and politicians as such must work to protect the interests of the public.
Florent Marciacq from the Luxembourg Parliament and the Austrian-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe spoke about the stability and the absence of democracy and why the countries of the Western Balkans are moving towards the EU, without really advancing.
He said that the EU maintains stability in BiH with its policies, but it is not enough because it takes more work for the process of rapprochement to become easier, but also to continue the development of democracy, because that is what is missing.
He thinks that the Western Balkans is in need for new ideas that will not be based on the issue of ethnicity because it needs to go forward, adding that the EU should not only talk to government representatives but also representatives of civil society and NGOs.
(Source: Fena)
