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Ambassador says Croatia offering Bosnia help, wants to encourage EU enlargement

Author: Roberta Mlinarić

ZAGREB, Jan 22 (Hina) - Croatia's Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ivan Sabolic, said on Wednesday Croatia was offering all possible assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina in its efforts to gain EU candidate status and in conducting accession talks once the necessary conditions were met.

Sabolic was presenting the priorities of Croatia's EU presidency at a news conference in Sarajevo, saying that the EU, its internal cohesion and global influence had to be strengthened and that its enlargement should continue, primarily to the Western Balkans.

"We strongly believe in the European identity of Southeast Europe," said Sabolic.

He confirmed that Croatia would advocate the launching of accession talks between the EU and Albania and North Macedonia, as well as that it wanted to help Bosnia and Herzegovina get the status of EU candidate as soon as possible and start accession talks as soon as the conditions were met.

Croatia will help Bosnia and Herzegovina with its competence and experience gained in the process of EU accession, the ambassador said.

"Croatia's policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina is very clear, it is based on the EU's priorities and means support for candidate status and for the equality of all constituent ethnic groups in Bosnia an Herzegovina," said Sabolic.

The head of the EU Delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Johan Sattler, who also took part in the presentation of Croatia's six-month EU presidency, said that it was clear that the process of European integration would be demanding on Bosnia and Herzegovina and that he expected much from the new enlargement methodology.

The new enlargement methodology should be presented in Brussels on January 29 and is expected to go into force by the EU-Western Balkans summit to be held in Zagreb in May.

However, regardless of the new methodology, Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue to be a specific case, Sattler suggested.

A lot of time and continued effort will be required, considering Bosnia and Herzegovina's complex structure, but there is a strong and clear prospect of EU membership after the necessary conditions are met, he said.

The Austrian diplomat said that the EU now expected Bosnia and Herzegovina to show that it was capable of working on 14 defined priorities, including the rule of law as well as changes to the election law to restore citizens' trust in the election process, including the organisation of local elections in Mostar this year.

If those elections are not held, that will cast a shadow on the entire election process, Sattler warned.

He also said that it was time the country's authorities started dealing seriously with environmental protection because it had become literally "a matter of life and death" in the country.

Sattler recalled the fact that more than 3,000 citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina die every year from the consequences of air pollution and that the problem could no longer be ignored.

(Hina) rml

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