EU Troika urges BiH to speed up reform efforts

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)

Foreign ministers of the EU Troika, consisting of past, current and future EU presidency holders, urged the BiH authorities on Thursday (April 9th) to speed up key reforms aimed at moving the country closer to the EU.

The call was issued as the Czech, French and Swedish foreign ministers — Karel Schwarzenberg, Bernard Kouchner and Carl Bildt — wrapped up their two-day visit to Sarajevo.

After talks in parliament, Schwarzenberg said that while the EU is ready to offer its support, the BiH authorities are mainly responsible for the reforms. He added that simplifying the constitutional framework would help, as BiH’s complex system of government impedes reform.

In other news, a former Croat member of the BiH presidency, Ante Jelavic, obtained release from his abductors late on Thursday, a day after his reported kidnapping in Zagreb.

The kidnappers reportedly called from BiH demanding 1m euros but eventually released him without collecting the ransom. Jelavic served as the Croat representative in the Bosnian tripartite presidency from 1999 to 2001.

In 2005, a court convicted him and sentenced him to ten years in prison for abusing his office and embezzling government funds in BiH, but he fled to Croatia to escape serving the prison sentence.