General documents - Joint statement by Co-Chair Snježana Novaković-Bursać (Parliamentary Assembly of BiH) and Acting Co-Chair Željana Zovko (European Parliament) - Delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo

14 March 2024

Following the fourth meeting of the EU-Bosnia and Herzegovina Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee on 13 and 14 March 2024 Co-Chair Snježana Novaković-Bursać(Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Acting Co-Chair Željana Zovko (European Parliament) stated:

When we reconvened in Sarajevo last October after a long period without meetings, we agreed that we would not allow that to happen again. As a sign of our determination not to lose the regained momentum in our inter-parliamentary relations and to breathe new life into the parliamentary dimension of Bosnia and Herzegovina's EU integration process, we agreed to meet again in Strasbourg before the 2024 European elections. Our open and frank discussions proved once again that direct face-to-face contact is essential if we are to develop a trust-based relationship. There are many takeaways from this meeting for both Delegations.

In its 2023 communication on EU enlargement policy, the Commission recommended the opening of EU accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina 'once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is achieved'. We recognise the progress made by Bosnia and Herzegovina, which led the Commission to recommend the opening of accession negotiations without further conditions. We encourage BIH Parliament to adopt electoral law in conformity with judgments of local and international court decisions. While we welcome that in the November 2023 country report key priority number 3 has been marked as completed as a direct result of our successful meeting in Sarajevo, we acknowledge that much more work needs to be done to fulfill many other key priorities and steps, notably in key areas such as democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights of all citizens. Accession to the EU shall remain a merit-based process firmly anchored in the Copenhagen criteria.The European Parliament stands ready to support BiH and its citizens in its path towards EU membership in full respect of the coordination mechanism for the EU integration process as agreed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We look forward to the resumption of regular EU-BiH SAPC meetings as soon as possible after the European elections.