Bosnia’s political leadership and civil society have shown a “relevant, significant political will” to move the country forward in its process of integration into the European Union, Federica Mogherini, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said in Sarajevo.
After the talks with Bosnia’s political leadership and representatives of the civil society, Mogherini, who visited Sarajevo with Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, said the “people of Bosnia Herzegovina are more than ready to have the country moving forward, towards the European Union.”
“There is a relevant, significant political will that we have had the possibility to see today in the institutions and in the political leadership to meet these expectations and start to working on a new basis,” Mogherini said.
Mogherini said that there was an ” opportunity to close with divisions or the problems from the past and have a fresh look at the way which Bosnia Herzegovina can fulfill its being part of the European union family.”
“From all political leaders we have had a positive response on their political will to commit seriously to a new phase that now obviously we have to make concrete and substantial,” she said.
She compared Bosnia’s path towards the EU integration with an “engine that we have to start, we are just checking if we have the key.”
“Now we have obviously to use the key and to start the engine and start running. But this is the first step, checking if we have the key. And I think we might have the key,” she said.
Mogherini also spoke of her meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Brussels on Thursday, saying that “obviously between the European Union and the Russian Federation at the moment we have some tensions. But I think it is a common interest of both the European Union and of the Russian Federation to find and develop ways of cooperation and not confrontation.”
“For sure, it would be a good idea to keep the Western Balkans out of this kind of dynamics or thinking and I would expect everybody in Russian leadership to consider the same way,” she said.
Hahn said the EU would be “ready to increase” its assistance to Bosnia “once the conditions are met, once the political will is there.”
Prior to the visit, Hahn insisted that its purpose would be “to reiterate the EU’s support for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s integration path.”
“At the same time, Bosnia’s elected leaders must now deliver, in the interest of their citizens, especially on economic reforms,” he said.
