Tag: Bosnia and Herzegovina

The new central government of Bosnia and Herzegovina aims to meet all conditions set by the European Union over the next month and apply for membership by the end of June, the Balkan country's new prime minister told Reuters.

The Serb entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina has abandoned its idea of holding a referendum on the legality of the country's national court, the European Commission announced today (13 May), as the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was on a visit to the country.

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Bosnian system operator BH-Gas signed yesterday (7 April) an agreement paving the way for a future extension of the planned gas pipeline to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The situation in the Western Balkans has never been better and there are signs of progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where competition between the entities could be used positively if it is accompanied by political will, Valentin Inzko, EU High Representative and Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), told EurActiv.de in an interview.

By making a success of further enlargement, as well as improving its public perception, the EU will be able to better address the many other challenges which it faces, argues the European Commission's enlargement strategy for 2010-2011, unveiled yesterday (9 November).

A former US ambassador to the Western Balkans has said the best solution to Bosnia and Herzegovina's problems would be for the country to break up into two separate entities. The US authorities distanced themselves from the "politically incorrect" statement, while Bosnian Muslim leaders accused the former diplomat of pursuing a self-interested agenda.

The European Parliament yesterday (7 October) backed visa-free travel to Europe's Schengen area for Albanian and Bosnian citizens, setting the EU assembly on a collision course with France, which opposes the proposal following its controversial crackdown on illegal Roma camps.

Following France's controversial expulsions of illegal Roma migrants, most of whom were EU nationals of Romanian and Bulgarian origin, Paris has signalled its opposition to lifting visa requirements for Bosnian and Albanian citizens. EurActiv.fr contributed to this article.

The son of Bosnia's wartime Muslim leader is set to become one of its three presidents, election results showed today (4 October). Analysts said he seems ready to work with other ethnic groups in the divided country.

Turkey would like to do business with the southern part of Cyprus - EU member the Republic of Cyprus - and both sides of the divided island should take steps towards the other, Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, president of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) could be excluded from playing international football. In football as in politics, the country is represented by its three ethnic entities, but international football bodies FIFA and UEFA have warned that the relationship is unmanageable.

European Union ministers said on Wednesday (2 June) that they remained committed to the integration of the Western Balkans into the bloc, dismissing fears of "enlargement fatigue" in the wake of the Greek economic crisis.

The European Commission today (27 May) adopted proposals to enable citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina to travel with biometric passports to the Schengen countries without requiring visas. If the countries satisfy a number of outstanding requirements, visas could be lifted by autumn.

Officials from Bosnia and Herzegovina have traded accusations with representatives of the international community, who have been helping to manage the country since the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement. The development came just days ahead of a Western Balkans summit in Sarajevo on 2 June, intended to reaffirm the region's EU membership prospects.

The EU should not give up on Bosnia and Herzegovina despite its ongoing internal divisions, yet the country must improve its legal system as governmental reforms simply fail as a result of corruption, Jan Havránek, an expert on security issues and a research fellow at the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI), told EurActiv Czech Republic in an interview.

While NATO ministers last week agreed to half-open the door for Bosnia and Herzegovina to join the alliance, EU diplomats told EurActiv that the European Union wanted to "militarily disengage" from the Balkan country, where it maintains numerous peace-keeping forces.

By the end of this year, the conditions will have been met for Bosnia and Herzegovina to apply for EU membership, Almir Šahović, the country's ambassador to France, told EurActiv.fr in an interview.

A new 'transnational' party - an unprecedented concept in the political landscape of Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) three ethnic communities - was recently created with the aim of helping to bring the country's divisions to an end. EurActiv France reports.

Serbia's parliament apologised on 30 March for the 1995 killing of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, but the process only highlighted how deeply polarised the country remains about its wartime past.