H.E. Mr. Vanja Filipovic:

Support for EU membership is fairly high in Bosnia and Herzegovina and crosses ethnic lines. It is a thing that everybody more or less agrees on. There is a high level of unanimity in that regard although trends show a slight decline over time, as people start to perceive EU membership as untenable or far away. We have not seen much movement over time. As I said in my opening statement, it has been beset by new problems and challenges, both domestically and internationally. That applies to the mood of the citizens with regard to membership.

Regarding reforms that we are undertaking, since the European Commission's avisin 2019, we have been tasked to work on 14 priority reform areas.

The latest progress report will, unfortunately, not show that we have moved forward much in a majority of those areas. As already stated, our institutions were blocked for long periods, whereas political parties used the option they have, guaranteed under the Dayton peace agreement, of simply not attending in good faith to the functioning of the Parliament, the state government, etc. That way, no progress could be made. That is one of the unfortunate effects of the Dayton peace agreement that allows this type of activity to go unimpeded for long periods of time, resulting in the stagnation of the reform agenda.