Tanja Fajon, a member of the European Parliament from Slovenia, stated that only a clear European perspective can peacefully solve the problems of partial interests in the region and strengthen cooperation and coexistence.
Fajon, who today hosted the online session of Round 99 on “The attitude of EU institutions towards BiH and other Western Balkan countries in the modern context”, stressed that people deserve a faster and more concrete process of EU accession and that it is essential to start negotiations with Albania and Northern Macedonia that met the conditions for it.
She reminded that the post-conflict reconstruction of BiH was marked by the influence of the international community, and the process of establishing functional institutions, unfortunately, was often the subject of experiments and improvisations.
“The EU understands the Western Balkans as an extremely important and promising region, but it is clear that there is still a lot of work to be done in that region in the fight against corruption, crime and human rights violations,” Fajon said.
She said that it was important to work on all reforms that lead to more functional institutions and respect for the rule of law, with an emphasis on the implementation of relevant decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in order to address the current political discrimination.
Fajon believes that the increased distrust in the countries of the region is understandable, and the responsibility, she stated, is common, that we build that trust together.
Commenting on the “non paper”, she emphasized that any idea of moving the borders, especially in BiH, which suffered the most damage after the breakup of Yugoslavia, is an extremely dangerous move.
“Such dialogues take us back to the past and at the moment we need to think about solutions that will make BiH a functional country, and with the accession to the EU, the borders should become symbolic,” said Fajon, BHRT writes.