The government in BiH has failed to meet the deadline of 28 April to submit a discussion paper for the meeting of the Subcommittee on Economic and Financial Issues and Statistics to be held 13 and 14 May in Banjaluka, warned Jean-Eric Paquet, director for Albania, BiH, Serbia and Kosovo at the EU Directorate for Enlargement.
In a letter sent to Nevenka Savic, director of BiH’s Directorate for European Integration, Paquet expressed regret that BiH authorities failed to meet the deadline.
He notes that the staff of the Directorate yesterday sent a notice that, in the context of the last meeting of the Subcommittee, the document was completed and forwarded to the Council of Ministers for approval. However, given that the next session of the Council is scheduled for 8 May, they have still not received information of whether the document will be considered and were not given final information regarding the submission of the document.
“The Commission would like to stress that it is no longer willing to have BiH authorities holding in a ‘stand-by’ position to the last moment. Also, on behalf of the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Issues, we wish to note that this is the first time that a country has not respected the standard procedures in economic dialogue with the Commission,” underlined Paquet.
He stresses that the meeting requires much preparation and that there would not be enough time for detailed consideration and analysis if the Council of Ministers adopts and sends a document on 5 May.
“According to this, I invite you to send the document on Monday, 5 May, which is one week after the agreed deadline. If this isn’t possible, I must inform you that the Commission is not available for a subcommittee on 13 and 14 May. This can have serious consequences for our cooperation in the field of economic and financial issues, which is key for the upcoming exercise of economic management,” warned Paquet.
He expressed confidence that the authorities in BiH would understand the risk and return to normal and well-organized cooperation with the Commission, as it had in the past five cycles of the subcommittee. (Oslobodjenje)
