Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, a Swedish career diplomat, arrived in Sarajevo this week to take up his post as the new head of the EU delegation and EU Special Representative to BiH. Ambassador Wigemark stressed in his first press conference that EU membership for BiH is inevitable, but that the country’s authorities had to take definitive steps.
“For citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to benefit from European Union membership, real progress on reform, economic and social reform, is necessary. Bosnia and Herzegovina can and will join the European Union. Exactly when depends on how quickly and effectively your own authorities can get on with these necessary reforms. There are some well-known steps to be taken urgently, in partnership between the EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first step is to implement the December Conclusions of the EU Foreign Affairs Council and start consultations with the EU and the International Financial Institutions to develop a reform agenda. The recommendations contained within the Compact for Growth and Jobs is the framework for this reform agenda.”
