The issue should be raised at the next Bosnia-Croatia-EU meeting to be held on the ministerial level, Bosnian Assistant Foreign Minister Amer Kapetanovic told Hina on Tuesday.
Croatian and Bosnian delegations discussed technical preparations for Croatia's EU accession in Brussels yesterday. The EU foreign affairs service said in a statement that they agreed to finalise a local border traffic agreement in the next few weeks and that Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele planned to invite the two countries' foreign ministers to a trilateral meeting in June.
Local border passes that could be discussed on that occasion make it easier for Croatian and Bosnian citizens who live near the border to cross the border. Croatian police departments have already invited people entitled to the passes to apply for them as of May 6.
New passes will go into force on July 1, aligned with European standards. However, Bosnian authorities have not yet undertaken measures to start issuing them in time. According to Nezavisne Novine daily, Bosnia's Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange (IDDEEA) claims the Council of Ministers is responsible for the delay.
IDDEEA spokeswoman Amila Opardija said there were no technical obstacles and that the Council of Ministers must adopt the project, approve EUR 225,000 for its implementation and sign a new local border traffic agreement with Croatia. She recalled that Croatia must align with EU standards, including those on local border traffic.
The current agreement goes out of force on July 1 and unless a new one is signed by then, the two states will not be able to issue the local border passes, said Zoran Perkovic, the Bosnian assistant foreign minister for consular affairs.
Croatian and Bosnian representatives are negotiating this issue with the EU's mediation.
Croatian authorities suggest the local border area extend five kilometres from the border, while Bosnia would like this to be 30 km, claiming this is in line with European standards, said Perkovic.
It is estimated that about 30,000 Bosnian citizens are entitled to local border passes for Croatia.