Yesterday, the European Council made a decision by which the European Union opens accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina. With this decision, the European Council calls for the adoption of the negotiation framework after the relevant concrete steps mentioned in the recommendation of the European Commission from October 2022 have been taken. The Commission then recommended that Bosnia and Herzegovina must take eight steps that are necessary for progress on the European path.
BiH applied for EU membership in 2016, and the EU approved the candidate status in December 2022. In that period, Bosnia and Herzegovina fulfilled some of the steps that the European Commission stated in its recommendations of October 12, 2022.
Last week, the European Commission published a report with the conclusion that Bosnia and Herzegovina sufficiently fulfills the conditions to take a step towards EU membership. The opening of accession negotiations is an important recognition and makes the country more attractive for investors and deepens relations with the European Union, and brings a number of advantages, such as one billion euros for Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Growth Plan.
What does this mean for civil society and young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina? To begin with, it is very important to recognize and congratulate all activists of civil society organizations and young people who have been working for years to recognize European values for the development of our society. A series of initiatives aimed at young people and other social groups was supported by the European Union.
The next phase means the adoption of a whole set of rights and obligations from the legislation of the European Union, which will greatly affect the work of civil society organizations, as well as the daily life of young people in our country. Each subsequent step should strengthen democracy, the rule of law, develop the business environment, reduce corruption, support environmental protection and much more.
In all these steps, young people must not be forgotten. As a significant social capital for the development of society in the next steps, both civil society and the authorities have an obligation to cooperate, to bring the processes closer to young people and to involve young people in concrete steps in the development of the reforms that follow us.
Until now, the young people had ideas, but they also gave a clear vision
Source: mladi.org
