Tomislav Karamarko, president of Croatia’s HDZ, and HDZ BiH President Dragan Covic this evening in Split said that their parties will not accept the inequality of Croats in BiH, and will advocate for BiH’s entry to the European Union, but with simultaneous establishment of equality for the Croat people.
They stressed that BiH must fulfill the same standards that Croatia did in acceding to the European Union.
“We will advocate and help BiH’s entry to the EU as good friends, through, inter alia, the equality of Croats. For us this really stayed, because BiH is also our homeland, the same as Croatia,” said Karamarko, responding to a reporter’s request to comment on the Croatian government’s initiative to facilitate negotiations on BiH’s entry to the EU before political arrangement, that is, before amending BiH’s constitution.
He noted that he is interested in a neighborly, friendly BiH as soon as possible arranging itself “by the standards of the EU and going through the processes and procedures that Croatia has done.”
“For us, BiH is a first-rate foreign policy issue, and a security, economic, and trade issue, but given that our (Croat) people are unequal in BiH, we cannot be at peace with this,” said Karamarko.
Covic said that HDZ BiH advocates for BiH’s European path and that the support of the Republic of Croatia is important.
“If anyone thinks that BiH will gift its neck to enter the EU, then they are tricking themselves hugely; we must agree within BiH and reorganize the country, and that is a parallel process. It isn’t realistic for someone to give us (BiH) a shorter path to entry to the EU with some smaller facilities than those that Croatia had, because that is something that is not feasible,” concluded Covic.
Stressing that it is necessary to establish the equality of Croats, Bosniaks, and Serbs in BiH, Covic said that the HDZ BiH has a proposal for constitutional changes in BiH.
“The HDZ BiH has a proposal for a BiH Constitution through four federal units in the country, but all other solutions could have a majority in the parliament; without this majority everything else is an illusion,” said Covic.
Karamarko and Covic tonight in Split participated in a working meeting of the HDZ’s officials from the Dalmatian county.(Oslobodjenje)
