World Bulletin/News Desk

Bosnia and Herzegovina leaders and EU officials came together in Brussels for the third round of the High Level Dialogue on the Accession Process on Tuesday in a bid to overcome the accession stalemate that is caused by non-functional approach by central European country leadership on some basic issues requiring immediate address.

EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stephan Fuele chairs the meeting during which three main issues would be taken up: Implementation of Sedjic-Finci ruling (a ruling that Dervo Sedjic and Jakop Finci, two Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens of Roma and Jewish descents respectively, were unjustifiably deemed ineligible to stand as candidates for country’s parliament membership in violation of the articles of European Court of Human Rights), establishing of a coordination mechanism on EU issues and adaptation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement/Interim Agreement in the context of Croatia's entry in the EU.

“Nobody would be surprised if they do not make any progress even now. However, it will tell us that – for the sake of the citizens – we need to change our approach toward Bosnia,“ said Jelko Kacin, chair of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, on the situation.

Meanwhile, Director of the Office for the European Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina Nevenka Savic explained that this meeting is “kind of a dialogue mechanism the EU introduced last June with the intention to explain methodology and conditions for the EU integration that can contribute to achieve agreements on some key challenges in the process.”

Before leaving for Brussels, Ambassador Peter Sorenson, the head of the EU delegation in Bosnia, issued a statement saying that too much time has been lost while the rest of the region has been moving forward to the European Union.

The EU officials are expecting that Bosnian politicians will present reasonable solutions for the existing problems. If no progress is shown, the EU leaders are also warning, local politicians could be sanctioned.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has been recognized by the European Union as a potential candidate for accession in 2003. The country was making slow but continuous progress, but this came to a halt in 2011 due to judicial and administrative problems between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Union.