“Accession is definitely going too slowly,” Senad Softic´, governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told GlobalMarkets. “When you look at the projections from the EU, they say we may have to wait five, six, seven years before entering the second phase. In the modern world, that is just too slow.”
Bosnia became an EU “potential candidate country” in 2003 but is still waiting for promotion to the next stage, where it becomes an official candidate to join the EU as a member state.
Asked if the EU could do more to inject pace into the process, Softic´, said: “This process is too slow, but that is not only dependent on us. It’s a process of local politics but also regional politics. I feel Europe can do more to help us overcome the obstacles in a faster way.”
He pointed to the list of 600 answers that Bosnia submitted in response to questions from the EU in March 2019, five months after its deadline had expired. Twenty of the questions remained unanswered, largely due to the fact that Bosnia simply did not have the required data. “The EU could have worked with us on these questions, to simplify and speed up the process,” he said.
Slipping behind
Bosnia has made remarkable strides at key institutional levels. Its central bank works hand in hand with the European Central Bank, and its data collection system uses Eurostat standards.
Bosnia has slipped behind every regional sovereign in the accession race bar Kosovo, whose existence as an independent state Serbia disputes. “We have better indicators than all of those countries,” the governor said.
That it may take another 15 or 20 years before Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes a member state — or worse that talks may stall in perpetuity, leaving the country permanently locked out of the single market — leaves officials frozen in fear.
“We can’t think about that future. The EU is our way, it is the only way, we can’t bear to think about any future where we are not a member,” said Gordan Milinic, director, council of ministers, at the country’s Foreign Investment Promotion Agency.
Softic´ added: “The fear is that we will remain at this level of development [if accession talks do not speed up]. And if that happens, the departure of young people to EU member states will intensify.
“Europe needs to help us, to get more involved in what we are doing, to help us move forward. Greater and deeper economic integration would provide us with better living standards, and a higher pace of development. That would mean more people, instead of leaving, want to stay.”