FM Hopes Bosnia-Herzegovina to Sign EU Agreement by April
Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said on Monday he hoped Bosnia-Herzegovina would sign the already initialled Accession and Stabilisation Agreement (SAA) with the EU in late March or early April. The precondition for the agreement, the police reform, could be adopted in March, said the Bosnian Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj.
Alkalaj added in Ljubljana that police reform would be followed by a reform of the constitution to make Bosnia-Herzegovina a better-functioning state. Alkalaj said Rupel had assured him that the EU supported Bosnia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Rupel told the press after the meeting that Slovenia, the current EU president, wished all the best to Bosnia-Herzegovina in its EU and NATO accession.
Rupel and Alkalaj also discussed the facilitation of the visa regime for the entry of Bosnia-Herzegovina nationals into the Schengen zone. Rupel said that the EU had passed a number of proposals to that effect and the European Justice, Freedom and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini was to visit Sarajevo soon.
Alkalaj said that Bosnia-Herzegovina expected a lot from Slovenia's EU presidency "Slovenia serves as a model for Bosnia-Herzegovina and can be very helpful in its accession to Euroatlantic links," he said.
The pair assessed bilateral relations as very good. Economic relations are booming and trade is approaching the EUR 1bn mark. Rupel also said that an agreement between the Bosnia-Herzegovina government and the Slovenian-run Centre for European Perspective would be signed soon.
Touching on the situation in the region, Alkalaj said that Bosnia-Herzegovina would cooperate with the EU and Western Balkans countries to secure peace and stability in Kosovo.
Reacting to calls on the declaration of independence by the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia-Herzegovina's Serb entity, Alkalaj said that the Dayton agreement did not give Republic of Srpska the right to secede.
He also said that Bosnia-Herzegovina had lost a big friend with the recent death of Former President Janez Drnovsek.
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