Komšić: European Commission's recommendations will not suit proponents of ethnic divisions

SARAJevo, (Patria) - Next Wednesday, I expect the European Commission to publish the "Western Balkans Package", which should include Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"As is known, the European Union was founded by the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, which entered into force on November 1, 1993. At that time, it was a community of states based primarily on economic interests, where the protection of collective rights of the peoples of the countries that then formed the European Union was present in a legal sense. By revising and improving the Maastricht Treaty with the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, which entered into force in 1999, then with the Treaty of Nice in 2001, which entered into force in 2003, and finally, with the currently valid Treaty of Lisbon of 2007, which entered into force in 2009, the current European Union has undergone its advancements and improvements, according to a statement from BiH Presidency member Željko Komšić.

The Treaty of Lisbon, he adds, represents the current acquis communautaire, or European legal acquis, which is used in negotiations with candidate countries for EU membership.

"What is important is the change related to the fact that the European Union has shifted from the protection of collective rights to the protection of individual human rights and fundamental freedoms, as stipulated by the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which has been incorporated into the European legal acquis. It is precisely in such an environment that Bosnia and Herzegovina expects the European Commission's Opinion regarding its candidate status. What should be particularly emphasized is that we are often warned from Brussels to reduce euphoria and announcements of obtaining candidate status because, in their opinion, BiH is still not ready for that phase. Furthermore, we can often hear from Brussels that the European Commission's Opinion will not be published because the government has not been formed, and therefore, there is no one in BiH to whom this opinion can be delivered. This is certainly not true. The application for membership of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European Union was submitted by the BiH Presidency in 2016. In 2018, the BiH Presidency submitted answers to the EU's Questionnaire, and then, again, the BiH Presidency submitted answers to additional questions in 2019. It is clear that the thesis that there is no one to whom the European Commission's Opinion can be delivered is simply incorrect, as that document can be delivered to the BiH Presidency," Komšić stated.

He states that for this reason, he believes that "the European Union put forward this thesis to mitigate the effects of negative elements from the Opinion, as all current shortcomings that Bosnia and Herzegovina has on its European path will be clearly listed there."

"I believe that the European Commission, when the time comes, will publish its Opinion on Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as a series of recommendations and measures that our country needs to fulfill to obtain candidate status for the European Union. These measures and recommendations, which will be based on the European legal acquis, European values, and norms that apply in all European Union countries, will certainly not suit a large part of the political actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, those from the center or the right. Unfortunately, ethnic norms that are nowhere near European ones still exist in our country. This is one of the reasons why the European Commission's Opinion will contain all observed shortcomings. An example of this is the advocacy of certain policies for the protection of collective rights, and we know well that this is not a standard in the European Union. Quite the opposite, the standard is the protection of individual human rights and fundamental freedoms. The respect for culture and tradition that the European Union shows to everyone applies to countries as a whole, not to parts of countries, as some here want to wrongly present and subsume under some collective rights, which is certainly not part of European policies towards potential candidate countries," Komšić stated.