ČOVIĆ DISAPPOINTED: Von der Leyen and Rutte refused dinner with Plenković and HDZ BiH

(Patria) - A Croatian delegation led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković met last night in Sarajevo with a delegation of HDZ BiH, led by the party's president Dragan Čović.

The meeting was held at the well-known Sarajevo restaurant “4 sobe gospođe Safije”, and Čović’s delegation included the President of the Federation of BiH Lidija Bradara, as well as the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of BiH Borjana Krišto.

Although it was initially expected that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would also attend the dinner, they did not appear, so the meeting turned into a meeting of representatives of the Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian HDZ, writes Nacional.hr.

As we have already written, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković did not appear at the meeting in the BiH Presidency building in Sarajevo this morning. The reason is also known: the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia did not appear because of the member of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić, although it was announced that he would be present.

Members of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić, Željka Cvijanović, and Denis Bećirović thus only welcomed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The reason for Prime Minister Plenković's absence is, at least according to Bosnian-Herzegovinian media, Željko Komšić, whom officials in Croatia do not consider a “legitimate member of the BiH Presidency from the Croatian people”.

Let us remind you, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, and Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenković arrived in Sarajevo last night to hold a series of meetings with BiH political representatives today, Nacional.hr further writes.

The visit occurs at a time when BiH is undergoing a major test of internal stability and readiness to fulfill conditions by March in order to officially open negotiations with the European Union by the end of March. Let us remind you, BiH received conditional green light for the start of negotiations in November last year, when the necessary degree of alignment with the membership criteria is achieved, writes Klix.ba.

And that degree of alignment essentially means the adoption of several very important laws that the European Union has long set as a condition for BiH. These are the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorist Activities, the Law on Conflict of Interest, and the Law on Courts.