“Region should help Bosnia-Herzegovina”

An Igman Initiative gathering has asked governments of Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia help Bosnia-Herzegovina get on the white Schengen list.

“Excluding Bosnia-Herzegovina from the white Schengen system leads to shutting out of a country, which will only deepen the already existing internal crisis,” pointed out the coalition of non-governmental organizations of the region – the Igman Initiative – in an open letter.

The initiative added that the current situation was putting non-Croat citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina who did not have dual citizenships and therefore could not acquire a passport which would provide them possibility to travel visa-free to the countries of the EU into unequal position.

“Since the internal stability of all the countries is a condition for the stability of the entire region, we think that it is in every country’s interest to support the request for Bosnia-Herzegovina to join the white Schengen list. At the same time they will show a sign of good will and mutual solidarity of the countries of the region,” the letter reads.

The Igman Initiative announced that they would send the same request to the European Commission.

The letter was signed by the co-presidents of the Igman Initiative from Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro: Aleksandar Popov, Vehid Šehić, Zoran Pusić and Branko Lukovac.

Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia are set to have the EU visa regime imposed on their citizens scrapped before the end of the year.