SARAJEVO, March 31 (Hina) - The chairman of Bosnia-Herzegovina's Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic, said on Wednesday he was convinced that his country would become a member of the European Union by 2009 despite a temporary halt in
the implementation of reforms to which an annual report of the European Commission on the Western Balkans pointed.
SARAJEVO, March 31 (Hina) - The chairman of Bosnia-Herzegovina's
Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic, said on Wednesday he was convinced
that his country would become a member of the European Union by 2009
despite a temporary halt in the implementation of reforms to which an
annual report of the European Commission on the Western Balkans
pointed.#L#
The EC report on four Balkan states was published on Tuesday.
Presenting the report in Sarajevo, the head of the European Commission
Office to Bosnia, Michael Humphreys, said last night that the
country's prospects of signing a Stabilisation and Association
Agreement with the EU this year were nonexistent, but added the
country could carry out the reforms necessary for signing the
document.
"I absolutely claim, and I am encouraged by the latest statements of
the High Representative Paddy Ashdown, that Bosnia can become an EU
member in five years' time," Terzic told reporters in Sarajevo after
his meeting with the ambassadors of EU member-states with whom he had
considered the report.
According to this document, Bosnia has so far achieved only two of 16
objectives it was supposed to in the last 12 months. Bosnian
authorities have only set up a system of indirect collection of taxes
and started reorganising the defence sector, but failed to make
headway in any other fields.
Terzic, however, believes that there is no reason to interpret the EC
report as negative.
This report is neither positive nor negative, Terzic said, adding that
it did not comment on Bosnia's readiness to join the EU but only
described the current state of affairs.
(Hina) ms