Brussels, 14 March 2022
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (AFET) holds a series of hearings during two consecutive afternoons on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The sessions started with two exchanges of views with EU Ambassador Sattler and High Representative Christian Schmidt, followed the next day by a hearing with Commissioner Varhelyi and an open meeting with the three members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dragan Čović, Speaker of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Željana Zovko, Vice Chair of AFET and Vice Chair of the Delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo stated that with these meetings, the European Parliament underlines the urgent need for progress on the European perspective by finally concluding an agreement on the electoral reform. “For months, the EU has been supportive with attempts to broker a deal. Recently, the EPP Group has even sent a high-level mission to Sarajevo under the leadership of Chairman Manfred Weber to find ways forward” Zovko said. She stressed that time is running out to find a deal before the planned elections in October and added that without the implementation of the decisions of international courts and the constitutional court, no elections can be held.