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SARAJEVO, August 30 (FENA) - The Pan-European Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in BiH organized a conference yesterday on "BiH and European Integration: Perspective and Reality".
The conference, which was held online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, was the final activity of the four-day "EU Summer School" and gathered young people from all parts of BiH, representatives of the European Union, members of the European Parliament, ambassadors of EU member states and policy creators in BiH, experts, analysts and representatives of civil society, who jointly discussed issues related to youth and European integration of BiH.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Josip Brkić reminded that European integration is one of the main strategic foreign policy goals of BiH, and spoke about the work of BiH institutions in meeting the criteria for EU membership.
“Everything can be faster and more efficient. However, we expect that the Council of the European Union will see the progress of BiH and will soon make a decision first on granting candidate status, and then to start negotiations,” said Brkić.
Fight against the consequences caused by coronavirus pandemic is the most important issue of the German EU presidency, reminded Sven Petke, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in BiH.
He stressed that despite this, the German government and the EU will continue to work on the EU enlargement process and encourage BiH's progress on its path to EU membership.
“The key is in the hands of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Petke.
The President of the Pan-European Union of BiH, Osman Topčagić, said that the priority for BiH is to obtain candidate status and then open membership negotiations.
He underlined that more Europe in our country means more peace, more stability and more economic prosperity.
Other speakers at the conference were Margret Uebber, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to BiH, Adnan Ćerimagić, an analyst at ESI Berlin, Adnan Huskić, political analyst, Dejan Šajinović, journalist, and Gordana Djurović, President of the Montenegrin Pan-European Union and former Deputy Prime Minister of Montenegro.
Participants agree that the migration crisis, Brexit, and now the coronavirus have further slowed the integration of BiH and other countries into the European Union.
(FENA) A. B.
