SARAJEVO, November 27 (FENA) – The Republic of Croatia wants to help Bosnia and Herzegovina in its efforts to join the European Union, stated Croatian Parliament President Gordan Jandroković after meeting with the members of the Joint Collegium of both houses of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo today.
Speaker of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly Dragan Čović told journalists that they discussed all key areas of cooperation.
“We expressed our gratitude to the Republic of Croatia for supporting our European journey and making this path simpler and easier, as well as for the cooperation at all levels through Croatian institutions with Bosnia and Herzegovina. I touched on our integration ambitions. The same can be said for our economic cooperation and the infrastructure we are working on together. Without this cooperation, we would not have jointly opened the bridge in Svilaj, nor the recent Hercegovina bridge. We want to connect our Corridor Vc, which runs through Croatia and across all of BiH, along with many other infrastructure projects,” Čović said.
Croatian Parliament President Gordan Jandroković emphasized that this was his first visit to the BiH Parliament as president of the Croatian Parliament, recalling that he had visited earlier as Croatia’s foreign and European affairs minister when Croatia was not yet a full EU member.
“For us, it was a time of great challenges, but we overcame them successfully, and now we have been a full EU member for over ten years. We are ready to share our knowledge with our friends in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Jandroković stated.
He added that he came to BiH as a friend, aiming to enhance parliamentary cooperation between the two countries. “It is extremely important, in these very challenging international global circumstances, to negotiate, discuss, and align mutual interests.”
“We are a country that perhaps knows the situation in BiH best. With over a thousand kilometers of common border, Croats are one of the constituent peoples here, and Croatia truly wants to help BiH on its path to the EU. Our interest is a stable neighborhood, our interest is a stable and functional Bosnia and Herzegovina, and our interest is a BiH that is rapidly moving toward EU membership. For this reason, we will do everything we can, transferring our knowledge and experience, to make this a reality,” Jandroković emphasized.
He also mentioned that they discussed the excellent economic cooperation.
“Trade relations are strong. We all expressed the desire for them to grow even further. We need to cooperate in the transportation and energy sectors. There are many touchpoints that we need to operationalize in the coming period,” Jandroković noted.
He also expressed condolences to his colleagues in the Joint Collegium of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly for the recent floods that claimed many lives.
“On behalf of the Croatian people, I expressed sympathy. The Croatian government responded quickly, securing aid of around ten million euros, and we hope this aid will be used to help those most affected,” Jandroković said.
In conclusion, Jandroković underlined that the world has changed significantly.
“Two terrible wars are being fought not far from Croatia and BiH. We have the unfortunate experience from the 1990s, and for this reason, there is no alternative to dialogue. Croatia will do everything it can to ensure that this dialogue is as intensive as possible,” Jandroković concluded.
