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| EU hopes to announce visa-free travel for Bosnians in June |
| EU, 07.04.2010 |
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| AFP - The EU hopes to announce visa free travel for Bosnians in June, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Wednesday, urging local leaders to prove their readiness to undertake reforms.
"I really hope that when we will come back in June ... I would be able on behalf of the European Union to announce formally that finally the Bosnia-Hercegovina people can travel free of visa to the whole European Union," Moratinos, whose country holds the EU rotating presidency, told journalists.
He was referring to an EU-Balkans summit expected to be held in Sarajevo early June.
"I think that it is something that all Bosnia-Hercegovina people are waiting for and I think we are coming closer to that," he added.
Moratinos labeled the lifting of visa requirements as a "very concrete and very specific measure that we show to the Bosnia-Hercegovina people that things are changing."
However, he warned it was up to local leaders to show readiness to make progress in reforms sought by the international community if Bosnia wants to join the EU and NATO.
"What we are offering them is a new opportunity, a new chance for moving forward ... we open the door, it's up to the leaders to decide what they want to contribute, how they want to enter in the new beginning of Bosnia-Hercegovina," he said.
Moratinos and US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg arrived in Bosnia Tuesday to push the ethnically-divided country's leaders to overcome a political impasse which has slowed reforms necessary for the country to one day join the EU and NATO.
A previous joint EU-US diplomatic initiative last October failed to overcome the political deadlock.
Western officials have recently stepped up calls on Bosnian politicians to drop nationalistic rhetoric as the country approaches general elections in October.
"On behalf of the European Union I'm going back with more hope, with more trust and confidence for the future of Bosnia-Hercegovina," Moratinos said.
Steinberg echoed his view saying the two were "encouraged by the constructive attitude taken by all the leaders."
However, the US diplomat Steinberg warned they should prove they were ready to "take the sometimes difficult but important decisions that will demonstrate their ability to take on the responsibilities of membership in the EU and NATO."
Bosnia's 1992-1995 war left the country split into two semi-autonomous halves -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The two share weak central institutions while each has its own government.
The international community insists on the strengthening of the role of central bodies to make the country more functional.
Last November the EU member states announced the decision to lift visa requirements for nationals of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia wanting to visit the Schengen zone countries, a majority of EU states.
Visa free travel to the zone took effect in December.
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