{"id":435866,"date":"2025-09-22T14:17:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/09\/22\/marta-kos-in-bosnia-ed-erzegovina-se-non-accelerate-sulle-riforme-rischiate-di-perdere-i-fondi-europei\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T15:03:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T13:03:06","slug":"marta-kos-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina-speed-up-reforms-or-risk-losing-eu-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/09\/22\/marta-kos-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina-speed-up-reforms-or-risk-losing-eu-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Marta Kos in Bosnia and Herzegovina: ‘Speed up reforms or risk losing EU funds’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – To urge Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/strong> to push ahead at full speed with pre-accession reforms <\/strong>\u2014 that is the mission of Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos during her three-day visit, which begins today (22 September) in the Balkan country, as tensions with the Serb minority continue to escalate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kos’s tour began this morning in Sarajevo, where she met with Prime Minister Borjana Kri\u0161to<\/strong> and the leaders of the tripartite presidency<\/strong> of Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e., the elected representatives of the three national communities: Bosniacs, Croats, and Serbs. “I believe in the European future of this country<\/strong>,” Kos began, speaking alongside Kri\u0161to at a joint press conference.<\/p>\n

The Commissioner reiterated Brussels’ support for Sarajevo’s efforts towards joining the twelve-star club, but reaffirmed the need to overcome the opposition of one part of the complex Bosnian state machinery<\/strong>,<\/strong> namely the Serbian one. “We have seen some positive steps<\/strong>,”<\/strong> she continued. However, she warned of the “renewed challenges posed by the unconstitutional and secessionist legislation<\/strong> <\/strong>adopted by the Republika Srpska<\/em><\/strong><\/strong>,” the entity of the Bosnian Serb community that, together with the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/strong> <\/strong>– that of the Bosnian and Croatian communities – constitutes the Federal Republic under the 1995 Dayton Agreements.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

I met chairwoman @KristoBorjana<\/a> to discuss how to advance Bosnia and Herzegovina\u2019s EU accession path: judicial reforms, adoption of the Reform Agenda still this month & appointment of a chief negotiator. The EU needs a counterpart in BiH to move forward with technical work. pic.twitter.com\/qlHPujQqUn<\/a><\/p>\n

– Marta Kos (@MartaKosEU) September 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

“The democratic institutions must be respected<\/strong>,” the Commissioner emphasised before urging the Kri\u0161to executive to “return to the path of reform,<\/strong>” starting with that of the judiciary, and to put in place “all the necessary measures” to start the first intergovernmental conference<\/strong> and formally open the first negotiation chapters with the EU. <\/p>\n

Sarajevo, she says, “must send the Reform Agenda<\/strong> as soon as possible so as not to lose the funds of the Plan for Growth<\/strong>“, the 6 billion instrument with which the Commission is attempting to stimulate the economy of the Western Balkans<\/strong> to create momentum in preparation for the accession of these candidate countries. The EU executive’s appeal to speed up reforms is not new<\/a>, as it has already frozen<\/a> some funds allocated to Bosnia and Herzegovina last year, precisely because of its inability to resolve this point<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Kri\u0161to said she was “optimistic”<\/strong> about the possibility of early progress on the reform dossier, but acknowledged that so far the Council of Ministers<\/strong> had failed to reach any agreement.<\/strong> “Reforms are in everyone’s interest,” she noted, “and we must complete them.” Above all, she emphasised, “political representatives must show a responsible and functional approach.<\/strong> We must get rid of alibis<\/strong>, we must take our responsibility<\/strong> in front of our voters,” she remarked.<\/p>\n

However, it may not be that simple. Milorad Dodik<\/strong>, former president of the Republika Srpska<\/em> and leader of the government party SNSD<\/strong>, has announced that he and his party will boycott all meetings with Kos<\/strong>, including the final speech to the bicameral parliament in Sarajevo (scheduled for the day after tomorrow). The Commissioner herself, moreover, considers Dodik a “separatist”<\/strong> and refuses to talk to those who undermine the unity of the Balkan country.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The former Serbian leader was recently caught up in a Bosnian federal court ruling that sentenced him to one year in prison<\/strong> for failing to fulfill his institutional duties in the framework of loyal cooperation between the federated entities, declaring him ineligible<\/strong> for the office of president of Republika Srpska<\/em> for six years<\/strong>. His mandate has therefore lapsed, and new elections<\/strong> have been called for 23 November.<\/p>\n

\nLast week, Dodik met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov<\/strong> to seek Moscow’s backing in the aim of retaining power<\/strong>. Towards the end of August, the SNSD voted in the national assembly of the Republika Srpska<\/em> to hold a referendum<\/strong> on the disqualification of the former president from office, as well as his ouster from public office. The popular consultation – which technically could not change the court’s decision – was set for 25 October. <\/p>\n

For quite some time now, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been troubled by a political crisis<\/strong>, mainly related to the hardening positions of the Republika Srpska<\/em><\/strong>, which is challenging the authority of Sarajevo, thereby jeopardising Bosnia and Herzegovina’s rapprochement with the twelve-star club. In March 2024, the European Council gave the political green light to start negotiations. Still, the first intergovernmental conference for the formal opening of the negotiation chapters<\/strong> has not yet been convened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Enlargement Commissioner urges the leaders of the federal communities to agree on a reform agenda to align with EU demands. But Republika Srpska seems unwilling to cool the secessionist escalation, and is preparing for confrontation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":436028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26491,26492,25836,28942,26493,31637],"class_list":["post-435866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-borjana-kristo-en","tag-bosnia-ed-erzegovina-en","tag-eu-enlargement-en","tag-marta-kos-en","tag-milorad-dodik-en","tag-plan-growth-western-balkans-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435867,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435866\/revisions\/435867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}