Smajić: I fear that after February 15, Bosnia's credibility may be completely exhausted

Zekerijah Smajić, a journalist and long-time correspondent from Brussels, speaking on the show "At the End of the Week" on PINK BH, discussed the EU accession application that Bosnia and Herzegovina will submit in February, reports the Patria news agency.

In any case, submitting the EU accession application is a procedural act and does not obligate anyone to anything, but it would have been better not to rush, because requesting EU accession at a time when Bosnia and Herzegovina is at the very beginning of implementing the reform agenda, when we have no agreed positions on the coordination mechanism, which is the second condition, and the third is to finalize agreements with Croatia, i.e., the European Commission, regarding the so-called traditional trade, and these are key conditions that we have not resolved at the expected level, says Smajić.

He explains that "he believes submitting the application on February 15 is a hasty move, and its only possible positive side is on a socio-psychological level in the extremely negative conglomerate of events in the country, and it could be a spark of light that Bosnia and Herzegovina can move towards the EU. Smajić warns that the key question is what negative consequences the submitted application could bring to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

- Just before the decision of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina to opt for submitting the application, several warning signals arrived from the EU, and the authors of the renewed approach, no less, spoke out, warning that it would be much more serious to wait with the membership request.

Of course, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, who is to receive our request because the Netherlands presides over the EU, also spoke out, as did some other countries, some quietly, some a bit louder. But, in principle, all old EU member states have a stance. Practically, we need to submit a paper for which, since 2009, they have established the term credible, meaning a well-founded, objective, and feasible request.

Feasible in the sense that when the European Commission prepares its approximately 1,000 questions for Bosnia and Herzegovina, they will have to be answered very professionally, precisely, without a shred of false information, since the European Commission, through its mechanisms, has the ability to verify every piece of data. In that case, Bosnia and Herzegovina will either gain that credibility among EU member states or lose it even more.

I fear that if we continue with new hasty steps, after February 15, our credibility could be exhausted even among the most willing member states, added Smajić.