Bosnia Misses Deadline to Answer EU Questionnaire

Bosnia has missed its deadline to submit its answers to supplementary questions posed by the European Commission as part of its Questionnaire.

Some 32 out of 35 working groups in Bosnia have sent back their answers to the EU questionnaire and the other three are expected to submit their responses by mid-December, Bosnia's Directorate for the European Integration, DEA, confirmed BIRN on Monday.

The DEA is the state-level expert body responsible for coordinating Bosnia's activities and obligations as regards EU integration.

"We expect the three working groups to submit their parts by mid-December and, in case of any unanswered questions, our commission will have to deal with that," Marina Kavaz Sirucis, spokesperson of the DEA, told BIRN.

Bosnia received its Questionnaire from the European Commission, which is needed to prepare its opinion on Bosnia's application for EU membership, in December 2016.

The answers were delivered in February. But in July, the EU requested additional answers or clarifications on some 655 questions, which is 20 per cent of the total of 33 chapters containing 3,242 questions.

Some 1,300 representatives, divided into 35 working groups, have been involved in the process of answering them through the agreed Coordination Mechanism.

This was established in 2016 as a way for Bosnia to overcome its administrative divisions and "speak to Brussels with one voice".

Some of additional questions seek clarification of issues such as whether Bosnia's constitution will allow the dominion of EU legislation over domestic law once Bosnia become an EU member - and why 13 Bosnian Constitutional Court verdicts have not been implemented.

Brussels is also interested in defining the legal basis of Bosnia's ...