The Twinning Project reaches out to civil society organizations and to media

A series of workshops were organized for Media, Youth and representatives of civil society organizations on the role of the parliaments in the EU accession process on 7-9 December 2015 in the frame of the Twinning Project. The identical workshops were organized for the representatives of the media and the youth and civil society organizations first in Brčko District Assembly, then for the Sarajevo based organizations in the building of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Banja Luka in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska. The workshops were addressed by the Chairmen of the Committees on European Integration, by Mr.Srđan Blažić, Chairman of the European Integration Committee of the Assembly of Brčko District BiH in BDA; in the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Mr. Nikola Lovrinović, Chairman of the Joint Committee on European Integration of PABiH and by Mr. Branislav Borenović, Chairman of European Integration and Regional Cooperation Committee in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska. The chairmen informed the audience about the current composition, scope and manner of work in the Committees for European Integration.

It is important that a parliament communicates responsibly and in a structured way with outside counterparts – may they be journalists, representatives of the youth, civil society or others. These workshops focused on supporting the better understanding of the role of the parliaments in the EU accession process for civil society counterparts of parliaments and so contributed to an increased awareness on the parliamentary challenges of EU integration in the general public. These events aimed also to foster vivid discussions and dialogue between stakeholders.

During the workshops, the experts (Péter Sárdi, Director for the Directorate for Foreign Relations, State Secretary, Hungarian National Assembly; Adam Dudzic, Deputy Director of the International Affairs Bureau, Chancellery of the Polish Sejm and Zoltán Horváth, MS Project Leader) pointed out the most important cornerstones of the roles that parliaments play concerning the EU accession process based also on the experiences of former candidate countries (Poland and Hungary) and at the same time introduced the achievements of the Twinning Project in order to enhance the role of Parliaments in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the EU integration context.

Several questions were asked by the participants. They were especially interested on the missing EU coordination mechanism and Programme of Integration and their relevance to Parliaments and their effect on the possible progress and delays of the integration process. The perspectives of EU accession especially related to its possible timetable were also in the centre of the questions. Issues were mentioned related to the application and the form and length of possible temporary derogations from transposition of some elements of the EU acquis. The method of involvement of the civil society in the EU-related parliamentary work was also in the focus, with special regards on the experiences and best practices of former acceding countries. The issue of effects of EU integration on key sectors especially agriculture and dairy products were also raised.