Crnadak with Foreign Ministers of Slovenia and Croatia

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Igor Crnadak participated in the first Forum of the European Union Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR), organised by the European Commission and the Government of the Republic of Croatia, held in Dubrovnik on May 12 and 13, 2016.

Yesterday, May 12, 2016, during the Forum, Minister Crnadak held separate meetings with the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, Miro Kovač, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Karl Erjavec.

During the meeting with Minister Kovač, good bilateral relations between BiH and Croatia were noted, and both ministers expressed their desire for further improvement of relations. The ministers discussed the European Partnership Agreement between BiH and Croatia, which is in its final phase, and it was agreed that it would be signed during the return visit of Minister Crnadak to Zagreb.

The ministers discussed the European integration process of BiH and the implementation of the Reform Agenda, with a special focus on the Stabilization and Association Agreement, and the fact that the adaptation process will soon be completed.

Ministers Crnadak and Kovač discussed the joint session of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Council of Ministers of BiH, which will be held by the end of the year and will be another confirmation of the readiness to improve relations between the two countries. The ministers concluded that it should not only be formal in nature but should result in concrete progress regarding certain joint projects and individual open issues, such as: the construction of the Pelješac Bridge, bridges in Gradiška and Svilaj, the issue of the Trgovska Gora nuclear waste repository, as well as the issue of the Novi Grad and Maljevac border crossings.

The meeting addressed activities within the Central European Initiative, chaired by BiH this year, and Minister Kovač confirmed his attendance at the CEI ministerial meeting on June 16, 2016, in Banja Luka.

At the meeting with Minister Erjavec, Minister Crnadak expressed his conviction that the existing good-neighbourly and successful bilateral cooperation between Slovenia and BiH, in all aspects, will continue to be built and strengthened. They discussed the implementation of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg regarding the return of old foreign currency savings of Ljubljanska banka, with Minister Crnadak emphasizing that resolving this issue is of particular interest to Bosnia and Herzegovina as it concerns hundreds of thousands of its citizens.