It doesn't matter if it's 6 or 14 priorities as long as there are EU member states blocking BiH's integration!

By: A. Čorbo-Zećo

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Layen is coming on an official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 22. The portal Istraga.ba has learned that she and other EU officials are considering the possibility of shortening the list of 14 European Commission priorities that have been set as conditions for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the integration process.

Immediately after the announcement of this news, euphoria once again set in, similar to when we received candidate status, or after the report on BiH, which politicians in BiH (the ruling ones) claimed was the best ever!? Of course, all of this is far from reality, especially due to the disunity within the European Union itself, so even shortening the requirements will not help BiH much on its path to the European Union.

For those who have forgotten, we will remind them of Hungary or the Netherlands, which is absolutely clear when it comes to EU enlargement, or the potential accession of BiH to this community.

After the European Commission's Report, the actors of state power, especially the Sarajevo trio, euphorically announced that it was a historic day; since then, we have not moved a single step forward, because the state Parliament has not been able to adopt even the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering.

Dutch policy is clear: a candidate country must fulfill the conditions before taking the next steps.

"A candidate country must fulfill all conditions before the next step in the accession process can be taken. In this process, the Netherlands remains a committed partner, supporting candidate countries in their reform processes," the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Patria earlier.

So what does shortening the list of priorities mean for BiH, if we are unable to choose what we can agree on ourselves, and it is clear that at this moment there is no common ground, even though the authorities assure us otherwise.

There is less and less optimism, considering that negotiations on the BiH Election Law are approaching, and in the previous period, this was a burning issue, and now it is even greater, as Republika Srpska also plans to adopt its own Election Law!

The ethnic concept of constituent peoples does not exist in the developed civilization of the West and the European Union, so Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a candidate, must adapt to these values, but this is difficult to achieve with the demands of HDZ and Dragan Čović.

The lack of principles of Brussels itself is an additional noose around BiH's neck and its path to the EU, and visits by officials to Bosnia and Herzegovina bring nothing concrete, because no matter how much they lower the criteria for BiH's entry into the EU, the fact is that, although there is consensus for EU integration, there is currently no topic or issue that the ruling parties would adopt and bring BiH closer to the European Union without blockades and conditions.

And there are still EU member states that are clear in their demands - no enlargement without fulfilling all conditions, and these countries have the right of veto, and therefore it is wiser to keep our feet firmly on the ground than to fly in the clouds with hope, which dies last.