The President of Republika Srpska, Željka Cvijanović, has pointed out that realistically speaking, the area of the Western Balkans belongs to the European Union and should be integrated into it, and that it is not enough to only accuse each other without accepting the fact that the EU didn’t show flexibility and that it burdened the process by demanding the impossible.

When asked by Srna to comment on accusations made by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock against Republika Srpska, Cvijanović has said that we see here many incorrect theses as per some established cliché.

“Firstly, Republika Srpska is not working to secede. It is clear that its institutions are working to preserve autonomy and powers in keeping with the Constitution. The narrative about separatists is invented to serve as a cover for the interventionism of foreign factors and an excuse for actions of foreigners instead of domestic institutions, and here also as an excuse for not granting BiH candidate status. If it wasn’t for that, it would have been something else”, emphasized the president of Srpska.

As for the influence of some of the listed countries such as Russia, China, and it is safe to say Turkey, Cvijanović said, if there is any, then it is also the result of the rigid approach of the European Union in the previous 20-30 years and missed opportunities.

“It is not enough just to say that there is a European perspective, and then freeze the European path of each of the countries of the Western Balkans by making demands that go to the heart of the unsettled relations. In BiH, centralization and constitutional reorganization are sought without constitutional changes that have the support of all three peoples. It would be more logical for the EU to help us strengthen internal trust instead of siding with one side and labeling the culprits”, Cvijanović pointed out.

She has pointed out that BiH is the most tragic example.

“The unfair attitude of the EU is most clearly seen in the example of North Macedonia, which was the first in the Western Balkans to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement, and has been a candidate country for 17 years, it has been waiting to receive a date for negotiations, and it fulfilled everything, even changed the name of the state. There are no, as they like to say, separatists there, so why so much injustice towards that country?”, she asked.

Cvijanović emphasized that realistically speaking, this area belongs to the European Union and should be integrated into it for various reasons – economic, social, political, and security ones.

“What has changed in the thinking of the governments and citizens of the countries of the region is that entry into the EU is no longer perceived as a reward, but as a rational need or a logical sequence of things. I think it would help if the EU members also started to think that this is not a reward, but something that is in mutual interest – both theirs and ours”, concluded the president of Srpska.