The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, reiterated yesterday in Sarajevo Spain’s support for Bosnia and Herzegovina to obtain, as soon as possible, the status of candidate for EU membership.
Sánchez visited Bosnia yesterday as part of his tour of the Western Balkans, which began on Friday in Serbia and will continue in Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania. The aim of the trip is to show Spain’s support for the accession of these countries to the European Union, as well as for their reform processes. This is the first high-level Spanish visit to this country since 2012, and follows the meetings that the President of the Government has held over the last few months with two of the three co-presidents of the country.
The President of the Government held a joint meeting in Sarajevo with the presidents of the tripartite collegial presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina: the Bosnian Croat Željko Komšić, the Bosnian Serb Milorad Dodik and the Bosniac Šefik Džaferović, who lead the country for four years in rotating eight-month shifts.
Sánchez then made an institutional statement together with the current rotating president, Šefik Džaferović, in which he stressed his “full support for the region” and, in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, reiterated Spain’s support for Bosnia and Herzegovina to move forward on the 14 priorities set by the European Commission, including electoral reform, in order to obtain EU accession candidate status as soon as possible. He also conveyed to the co-presidents the need to avoid divisive actions, to return to the institutions and to bet on dialogue to propose solutions, and stressed the need for the general elections, scheduled for October 2, to be held “normally”.
Pedro Sánchez also showed the interest of Spanish companies in collaborating with Bosnia and Herzegovina in areas in which they are world leaders, such as consulting, engineering, construction and equipment of transport infrastructures, environment and renewable energies. After this meeting, the President of the Government held a meeting with the Mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, in the former National Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the current seat of the city council, and visited the old part of the city. The building, destroyed during the war, was rebuilt with Spanish assistance.
The day concluded with a trip to Mostar, where he made a floral offering in the Plaza de España, where the Spanish flag flies as a sign of gratitude for the work of the Spanish Armed Forces in the country, and visited the city’s City Hall, together with Mayor Mario Kordić. December 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Since 1992, more than 45,000 Spanish soldiers have participated in UN, NATO and EU peacekeeping missions in the country, in which 23 people died (22 military personnel and a local translator). In addition, during the war, Spain took in almost 5,000 refugees and, since then, our country has carried out development cooperation activities. Another link between both countries is the Sephardic legacy.
Pedro Sánchez was working in Bosnia between 1997 and 1999 as Chief of Cabinet of the then UN High Representative in this country, the Spaniard Carlos Westendorp, whom he had met in 1996 when he was Spanish Ambassador to the United Nations, after his brief period as Foreign Minister in the last government of Felipe González.
