Tineke Strik calls for EU Screening for Bosnia and Herzegovina

(Patria) - Following the recent visit of Tineke Strik, a Dutch MEP, who held a series of meetings with various domestic officials and representatives of the non-governmental sector, at the initiative of representatives of the cabinet of Željko Komšić, member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, she addressed several questions to the European Commission, which we publish in full:

"At the European Council meeting of 21-22 March 2024, a decision was taken to open accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, following a recommendation from the Commission. The Commission was invited to prepare the negotiating framework, after which the Council will decide whether to adopt this framework once all relevant steps set out in the Commission's report of 12 October 2022 have been taken.

Can the Commission confirm that the next formal step in Bosnia and Herzegovina's accession process – before the adoption of the negotiating framework – is the so-called Screening process, during which Bosnia and Herzegovina's negotiating position will be determined?

Can the Commission confirm that the adoption of the negotiating framework depends on the successful completion of the Screening phase, and that therefore negotiations cannot begin before this process is completed?

When will the Screening process begin and could the Commission provide a timeline for this?"

The reasons for such questions are very simple and are reflected in the fact that, for example, Ukraine and Moldova have long been in the Screening process, which has not even started for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Screening is the procedure by which the European Commission conducts a detailed analysis of the candidate country's alignment with the EU acquis communautaire through six negotiating clusters.

Based on the degree of alignment of the candidate country in the areas of the six clusters, its negotiating position is determined, which can be more favourable if the degree of alignment is higher, or worse if the degree of alignment with the EU acquis is low.

Since the European Commission, in its report of 12 October 2022, already provided an overview of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, observed through six clusters in which it was assessed that there is no significant progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Screening process is of exceptional importance, because all subsequent steps should depend on it, such as the development of the National Programme for the Adoption of the EU Acquis (NPAA) into the domestic political, legal and economic system in accordance with the criteria from Copenhagen 1993 and Madrid 1995.

For such a thing to be possible at all, it is necessary for the European Commission to prepare a Screening or review of the situation, which will provide the elements for drafting our NPAA. Apart from this bureaucratic part, Screening also has its political significance, because neighbouring Croatia is trying to avoid Screening and "push" such a Bosnia and Herzegovina, with ethnic divisions and an ethnic and entity-based decision-making system, into the European Union, in order to continue its pressures regarding the Election Law, by which Croatia would seize part of Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty for its own benefit.

In fact, Screening as part of the EU integration process would provide an answer to the essential question of whether a politically structured Bosnia and Herzegovina can progress further at all, without first undertaking serious constitutional reforms, as well as reforms of a number of laws, so that our country would be able to obtain its Negotiation Framework, and after that the Intergovernmental Conference, which is the formal date for the start of negotiations.

In the current circumstances, with some kind of coordination mechanism where entities and cantons participate in European integration, this would certainly not be possible. That is why the question of MEP Tineke Strik, a proven friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is of essential importance and a great help to our country.