Source: http://dalje.com/en-world/croatia-tryin ... sal/503782

Croatia trying to keep region on EU radar with Bosnia proposal

A majority of European Union member states believe that a different approach towards Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is necessary and Croatia has offered "a proposal for talks," Croatian European and Foreign Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic said on Monday.

The Croatian government has sent to Brussels a non-paper in which it proposes dealing with the Bosnian political crisis by opening a negotiation process which will enable BiH to gradually become ready to meet all the EU membership requirements, instead of waiting that it meet the requirements before being allowed to negotiate membership.

"We offered a base, a proposal for talks," Pusic told reporters regarding the non-paper. "There is absolute awareness among all or a huge majority of the member states that a different approach is necessary. We will see if this is that approach, but it will certainly help in having our region and BiH on the radar of all member states, which is important in the conditions we are in."

The proposal will also be a base for conclusions on BiH which will expand the approach and make it more efficient, Pusic said giving a talk at a communication management college on Croatia and the EU in relation to the geopolitical relations in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis.

Elections for the European Parliament have been called for May 25 and Pusic, a member of the People's Party, a member of Croatia's coalition government, said it was particularly important that people went to the polls and that the campaign was not dirty.

"If the campaign is dirty and aggressive, it will be counterproductive, it will demotivate people. People are sick of meanness and negative messages. It's important to show, notably in this context of changed geopolitical conditions, to what extent this European framework is important to us, that it's good and gives us security," Pusic said.

"I would say to everyone, if they wish this country well, to keep away from fighting and dirty campaigns and to try to tell people why this is good for them and what can be done with it," she added.

At the talk, she said the European Parliament passed 50 per cent of all laws by which EU citizens lived. "It's important that our people go to the polls and recognise the extent to which the whole thing makes no sense without them. Imagine if someone today asked the Ukrainians if they would go to the European elections. Probably all would," she said.

Source: http://dalje.com/en-world/pack-against- ... nia/505174

Pack against Croatia's proposals for Bosnia

The European Parliament rapporteur on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Doris Pack, has said she disagrees with Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic's proposal for a new European Union approach to BiH to step up the negotiating process between BiH and the EU.

There should be no new or different requirements for BiH other than those which apply to all other states, Pack was quoted as saying in the Bosnian daily Oslobodjenje of Tuesday.

Every country has its difficulties and those in BiH are different than, say, in Serbia. Serbia had problems with Kosovo, while BiH has a situation based on (the) Dayton (peace agreement), she said.

Pack said BiH's Constitution had created the problems such as those relating to the implementation of the European Court of Human Rights ruling in the Sejdic-Finci case, but added that BiH should not be awarded special candidate status because of that.

The key to the solution for BiH is the equality of all three constituent peoples. It must not happen that Bosniaks believe that they must make all the decisions while Croats have no say, Pack said, adding that all the problems could not be solved at once, but their number must be reduced.

Asked what federalisation, mentioned in the European Parliament's latest resolution, would mean for BiH, Pack said this was about respecting the two entities as constituent parts of BiH and that there should be no centralisation within the Federation entity.

When we say federation, we mean the one consisting of two parts, she said, adding that no one in the EP advocated the further federalisation of the Federation entity.

If cantons are abolished, one must see that Croats in the Federation are not neglected, but there can be no new divisions and a third entity is out of the question, said Pack.