The latest session in the long-running BiH-EU Structured Dialogue on Justice opened on Tuesday in Sarajevo. In line with the EU’s earlier proposals, this session’s scope was expanded to include other rule-of-law issues beyond those originally included in the Dialogue, despite the objections of some officials participating.
The opening sessions were dedicated to the reform of the judiciary and issues related to the war crimes backlog. These items remain at the very core of the Structured Dialogue agenda and still require targeted institutional reforms and technical measures to be adopted and implemented. Yet, new additional rule of law issues begun to be addressed in this framework, including aspects related to the fight against corruption and anti-discrimination policies. For the first time, debate on these matters is taking place in the Structured Dialogue, and will be run also at the presence of civil society organisations coming from all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
