Bosnia Stalls on Answering EU Questionnaire

Denis Zvizdic, chairman of the Bosnia's Council of Ministers, has said that Bosnia has prepared 95 per cent of the answers for the EU questionnaire - but the remaining 5 per cent will be an obstacle to meeting the deadline of December 31.

Bosnia received the Questionnaire of the European Commission, needed to prepare its opinion on Bosnia's application for EU membership, last December.

"There is no reason for optimism since ... Bosnia faces a lack of political will and capacities to resolve this question any time soon," Inela Hadzimesic, from the Initiative for Monitoring the European Union Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an NGO, told BIRN

This initiative is an informal coalition of civil society organisations that contributes to monitoring reforms and overviews the application of EU policies, laws and standards.

The questionnaire for Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of 33 chapters and 3,242 questions, and 1,300 representatives from Bosnia are included in the process of answering them through the agreed Coordination Mechanism.

The 3,242 questions are intended to give Brussels detailed insight into political, social, economy and administrative conditions in Bosnia, so that the European Commission can make a considered decision on its request for candidate country status.

Europe's Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, has described it as maturity exam for Bosnia.

The major problem appears to be about 50 questions on the political criteria when it comes to Bosnia approaching EU, but this has not been officially confirmed, Hadzimesic explained.

"We knew from the start that questions about the strategy for transitional justice, what ways are used for processing war crimes, and...