Bosnia and Herzegovina should take advantage of new EU enlargement signals for key reforms towards democratization and the fight against corruption

Sarajevo, October 31, 2023 – Renewed EU interest in the enlargement process for the countries of the Western Balkans should serve as a motivation for accelerating essential reforms, primarily in the field of democratization and strengthening the rule of law, it was said at the “EU Integration Forum” conference, organized today by Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.

Instead of the previous declarative decisions for integration, the leaders of the countries of the region should initiate a whole series of brave but necessary steps in order to achieve stronger legal, political, economic and developmental integration, it was said at the conference.

“It is time for expansion, but it is up to Bosnia and Herzegovina to take the necessary steps and initiate reforms towards further integration with the European Union,” said Adebayo Babajide, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina at the opening of the conference.

During the panel discussions, the participants noted that BiH is experiencing constant deterioration in numerous areas such as the rule of law and corruption, which has become almost unpunishable due to the captivity of the judiciary and other institutions. At the same time, authoritarian trends are increasingly present in the country through laws that violate basic human rights and freedoms, which is most visible in Republic of Srpska, where defamation has been returned to the criminal code with announcements of even more rigorous laws that will suppress the work of the media, non-governmental organizations and individuals who are not under the control of the authorities.

All this indicates that BiH is in a state of institutional captivity and at the limit of basic functionality, which is why the ability to respond to the challenges of the negotiation process with the EU is called into question.

“The existing dysfunctional management structure in BiH will hardly be able to respond to the challenges of the negotiation process,” said Srđan Blagovčanin at the opening of the conference, adding that BiH has not yet adopted an integration program, which shows that the existing coordination mechanism is completely dysfunctional.

The conference also dealt with the issue of challenges facing the EU itself, which is going through the longest period since not a single new member was accepted and which, the participants agreed, is ripe for reforms in terms of the internal functioning, in order to create a sufficiently attractive space for political and economic integration of neighboring countries, such as the countries of the Western Balkans.

The conference, which was organized by Transparency International in BiH with the support of the Kingdom of Sweden, was attended by Adebayo Babajide, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Birgitta Jansson, representative of the Swedish Embassy in BiH, Srđan Blagovčanin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of TI BiH and regional experts from area of the rule of law, EU integration, representatives of domestic institutions and international organizations, civil society organizations, the academic community and the media.