The Irish Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton, invited state authorities in BiH, as well as political actors from all levels of government to work together in order to revive the reform process necessary for BiH to become a part of the European Union (EU).
Minster Creighton will be in the next six months one of the central figures in EU politics, given that Ireland will preside over the EU in this period.
She believes that for BiH it is particularly important to achieve reforms at the level of judiciary and rule of law.
‘’I would encourage the state government to work constructively on the challenge facing BiH, and especially at the level of economy, creation of new jobs and social protection’’, said Creighton in an interview for ‘’Dnevni Avaz’’.
She announced that Ireland lends its full support for BiH’s European Perspective, and hopes that they will soon see a credible request for membership, which will require additional reforms laid out in the Road Map.
Speaking about the current EU policy towards BiH, she said that the conclusions of the Council of the European Union from December 2012 confirmed that, if solid progress is made in economic and political reforms, as well as meeting the necessary requirements, the remaining potential candidate countries in the Western Balkans should achieve candidate status for the EU.
Even if Ireland does play a direct role in the context of relations with our country during its EU Presidency, it will do everything to possible to encourage BiH on its path to European integration.