The High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, today met with a senior delegation from the European Commission’s Directorate for External Relations, headed by the Director, Mr Reinhard Priebe. The delegation is visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina to discuss assistance to the country within the EU’s five-year Regional and Country Strategy.
The High Representative welcomed the EU’s stated priority of providing support for refugee return and media reform, the State institutions, the reform of customs and taxation, improvements in the fields of justice and home affairs including asylum and migration issues, border management, policing, the administration of justice, and protection of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s environment and natural resources.
The new five-year strategy calls for more and concerted efforts by the domestic authorities to press forward with the EU Road Map and later with the European integration process. So far, only modest progress has been made. The High Representative once again expressed his view that the Stabilisation and Association Process with the EU is at the heart of reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The High Representative notes once again thaBosnia and Herzegovina. The High Representative notes once again that a Stabilisation and Association Agreement represents the first step in the integration process.