Sarajevo, 11 February 2022
A high-level delegation of the EPP Group in the European Parliament has visited Sarajevo on Thursday 10 and Friday 11 February to take stock of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to discuss the progress in the negotiations on the election law. The delegation was led by EPP Group Chairman Manfred Weber and joined by EPP Group Vice Presidents Željana Zovko, Rasa Juknevičienė and Paulo Rangel, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, David McAllister and EPP spokesperson for Enlargement and Southern neighourhood Balkans Andrey Kovatchev.
The visit included separate meetings with the EPP sister parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The delegation spoke with the Speaker of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly and HDZ BiH President Dragan Čović, Deputy Speaker of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly and SDA President Bakir Izetbegović, PDP President Branislav Borenović and HDZ 1990 President Ilija Cvitanović. In addition, they also held a meeting with Branka Bajić, head of the legal service of the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina and High Representative Christian Schmidt. The two-day visit ended with a meeting with representatives of civil society.
Zovko stressed that this visit showed the strong commitment of the EPP Group to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its European accession process. “During the meetings the EPP delegation has underlined the need for an agreement on the reform of the electoral law in line with the decisions of the constitutional court and international courts to improve the internal stability and political functionality of the country.” Zovko said and concluded by stating that all constituent people deserve legitimate representation at all levels.