Thursday 28 Nov 2013 @ 16:05
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EU Enlargement: Bosnia and Herzegovina must strengthen coordination and engagement of all levels of governance
Local and regional representatives from the EU countries and Bosnia and Herzegovina met on 14 November in the framework of the Committee of the Regions' Working Group on Western Balkans to debate recent developments in EU-Bosnia and Herzegovina relations and their impact on local authorities. Members of the Working Group stressed the urgency to establish coordination mechanisms between the various levels of government to enable the country to speak with one voice on EU matters and ensure effective use of EU pre-accession funds.
The 14th meeting of the Committee of the Regions' (CoR) Working Group on Western Balkans focussed on the political and social reforms taking place in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as a potential candidate country to the EU, as well as the use of EU Pre-accession funds at the country's local and regional level. The debate was particularly timely given last month's adoption of the European Commission's 2013 Progress Report on Bosnia Herzegovina, which assessed the country's prospects of joining the European Union as being "at a standstill".
Opening the meeting, the chair of the Working Group, Mia De Vits (BE/PES), Member of the Flemish Parliament, stressed that "The CoR has always given its full support to the enlargement process. This has been reflected not only in its opinions but also in its decisions to support the stabilisation and association process in potential candidate countries by setting up thematic working groups such as this one." Regarding the role of the local level in enlargement, she recalled that, in the same way as in EU countries, candidate and potential candidates to the EU have to design their own model of decentralisation, in accordance with the subsidiarity principle.
The Ambassador of the Mission of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the EU, H. E. Mr. Igor Davidović, emphasised that EU accession remained a top priority on the country' political agenda: "Our clear priorities are membership of the EU, development of functional state institutions and balanced decentralisation of powers, where the role of local development and territorial cooperation under the umbrella of functional state authorities is a must."
He added that "The Committee of the Regions has an invaluable role to play in the Western Balkans and especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina where its expertise in multilevel governance may inspire the institutional and political leaders of the country to speak with one voice in the process of EU integration, while engaging and coordinating all sub-state entities”.
He added that "The Committee of the Regions has an invaluable role to play in the Western Balkans and especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina where its expertise in multilevel governance may inspire the institutional and political leaders of the country to speak with one voice in the process of EU integration, while engaging and coordinating all sub-state entities”.
Paola Pampaloni, Head of BiH Unit in the European Commission's DG Enlargement, presented the main conclusions of the country's 2013 progress report which outlines the lack of progress in the country's EU membership prospects. She referred to the main "bottlenecks" currently blocking the process, including failure to agree so far on a solution to implement the European Court of Human Rights' judgment regarding discrimination against citizens on grounds of ethnicity (Sejdić-Finci case), and the lack of coordination mechanisms between the various levels of governance.
As rapporteur on the CoR opinion on "Enlargement strategy and main challenges 2013-2014", Arnoldas Abramavičius (LT/EPP), Mayor of Zarasai District Municipality and Member of the Municipal Council, stressed the need to ensure that local and regional authorities of candidates and potential candidate countries are properly involved in the EU negotiation process. More specifically he called on BiH authorities to make headways in decentralising management of EU funds, a condition which, if not met, may put EU’s financial assistance to the country in jeopardy, he said.
On this issue of the use of EU Pre-accession funds (IPA) at local level, Dino Elezovic, representative of the Sarajevo Canton to Brussels, pointed out that every municipality in Sarajevo canton had set up an EU office to assist municipalities in defining and implementing EU-funded projects. He however pointed to the lack of adequate professional human resources to properly follow the development and implementation of projects.
In this regards, Mr Elezovic welcomed the possibilities offered by the Local Administration Facility programme, organised by the European Commission's DG Enlargement together with the CoR to learn further about the use of IPA funds through better preparation of projects at local level. On the same subject, Mićo Mićić from the Association of the Cities and Municipalities of the Republic of Srpska raised the issue of the difficulties experienced by small BiH municipalities in designing and implementing EU-financed projects due to their limited co-financing capacities.
In this regards, Mr Elezovic welcomed the possibilities offered by the Local Administration Facility programme, organised by the European Commission's DG Enlargement together with the CoR to learn further about the use of IPA funds through better preparation of projects at local level. On the same subject, Mićo Mićić from the Association of the Cities and Municipalities of the Republic of Srpska raised the issue of the difficulties experienced by small BiH municipalities in designing and implementing EU-financed projects due to their limited co-financing capacities.
The Mayor of Brčko District in BiH, Anto Domić, was eager to stress his commitment to align to EU values and standards and contribute to the setting up of appropriate coordination mechanisms between the District, the Entities and the State so as to allow for the transposition of EU legal acts on the whole territory of BiH.
Concluding the meeting, Mia de Vits expressed hopes that the bottlenecks currently preventing BiH to make headways on the path towards EU accession be cleared by the end of the year so as not to further slow down the country's integration process. She reiterated the CoR full commitment to contribute by encouraging the exchange of best practices between EU and BiH's local authorities, and offering them guidance in making efficient use of the resources offered by pre-accession funds.
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