EU Membership No Longer Attractive for Serbs

  19 November 2015    Read: 781
EU Membership No Longer Attractive for Serbs
The president of Republika Srpska, one of the two administrative entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, claims that EU membership might not be the best path for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
EU membership might not be the best path for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the president of Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two administrative entities in BiH, told Sputnik Serbia.

"Europe of regions and open borders is a lie," Milorad Dodik said, explaining that "There was not a single reform on BiH’s path to the European Union that would not imply that RS should give up its powers."

Dodik stressed that RS should strengthen its autonomy on the path towards EU membership, although overall, Europe does not look as tempting to Serbs as it used to a couple of years ago.

"I did not say that joining the European Union is completely out of question. But Europe, which is not ready to solve problems to such a high extent, is becoming less and less attractive," the RS president said, adding that doubts regarding EU future are becoming stronger across Europe.

"It’s a big question, how Europe will look like in the future," Dodik said.

The European Commission presented its annual progress reports on candidate countries for EU membership last week. The report estimated that Serbian preparation for EU accession was moderate in the majority of areas, including foreign policy.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two autonomous entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska.

According to Dodik, Serbs in BiH are mostly opposed to EU membership, while Bosniaks and Croats are in favour of it.

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