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SARAJEVO, April 10 (FENA) - The European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe’s joint program "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey" is of great importance to Bosnia and Herzegovina because it is bringing it closer to the EU and helping it meet EU standards, especially in the areas of rule of law and the fight against discrimination, highlighted today the participants of the second meeting of the Steering Board of the joint EU and Council of Europe program "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey", held in Sarajevo.
The Head of the Council of Europe Office in BiH Drahoslav Štefánek said in a statement to the press that the total budget of the program amounted to 25 million euros, of which the EU has provided 20 million, and the Council of Europe five million.
He stressed that this program in BiH this year has four projects, two projects that began last year, namely the "Program for Human Rights of Detainees and Prisoners" and the "Capacity Building Program of the Ombudsman for the Fight Against Discrimination".
“This year we introduced two new programs, namely ‘Quality Education in Multiethnic Societies’ and ‘Program for Rights of National Minorities’,” he added.
The Head of the Office of the Directorate General of Programs of the Council of Europe Pilar Morales emphasized that the Horizontal Facility program was key to the implementation of the reforms, which are in line with the reforms of the Council of Europe monitoring bodies and the EU standards, and that it is being implemented in the areas concerning prisons, police and the fight against discrimination in BiH.
"The results of past work and lessons learned from implementation will also be useful for planning the program over the next two years," Ms. Morales said.
She also stressed that the results and lessons will be key to the Council of Europe's Action Plan for BiH for the next period, which will include priority areas agreed between BiH and the Council of Europe.
“The Action Plan will also take into account the EU Strategy for the Western Balkans and thus prioritize activities for the next phase of this program, while reforms will focus on the rule of law, human rights and good governance in BiH,” she said.
The Head of Cooperation in the EU Delegation to BiH, Melvin Asin, addressed the journalists as well, pointing to the fact that human rights and the fight against discrimination were a major topic for EU integration and that the program has shown its added value in this area.
He listed some of the results of the program, such as exchange of regional experience in combating hate crimes and hate speech, which enabled the spread of EU standards in the fight against, protection from and prevention of discrimination.
(FENA)
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