Bosnia falling behind in meeting EU requirements

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has managed to fully meet only one of the 175 requirements of the European Partnership program, the European Commission Delegation in BiH was quoted as saying by the Banja Luka daily "Nezevisne Novine" on Saturday.

Zora Stanic, spokesperson for the Delegation, said that only the visa liberalization process had been fully achieved, while other conditions were partially fulfilled or hadn't even been commenced.

The European Partnership is a key set of policies that BiH must reach to become an EU member. It is subdivided into five sections: social policy; anti-corruption measures and the rule of law; agriculture and rural development; energy and the environment; and educational standards.

Sanel Huskic, president of the Alumni Center for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies (ACIPS), a non-governmental organization that deals with the EU and the obligations of BiH, said that politicians in BiH over the past four years have done almost nothing to meet the obligations of the European Partnership.

"The question is whether our politicians actually want us to enter the EU," said Huskic. He said that BiH could expect to join the EU by 2018, if there was a "180 degrees shift in policy."

"If we partially dedicate our efforts toward European Partnership, not full capacity, the possible date could be 2023 to 2025," said Huskic. "But if we continue like this, we will never enter, and that is the message they have clearly sent."

Source:Xinhua