Представяне

The European Parliament has one delegation devoted to developing relations with elected representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina and from Kosovo.

While the same delegation - officially named the Delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo (DSEE) - works with both countries, it does so in two, distinct forums.

Parliamentarians from the two countries and MEPs work together in joint "Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committees" (abbreviated as SAPCs): the EU-Bosnia and Herzegovina SAPC and the EU-Kosovo SAPC.

Legal basis

For many years members of the European Parliament met with elected representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina and from Kosovo in informal "Inter-Parliamentary Meetings" (IPMs).

Once the Stabilisation and Association Agreements (SAAs) entered into force between the EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina (in 2015) and between the EU and Kosovo (in 2016), the European Parliament altered the forum for developing bilateral contacts based on international law (the SAAs).

The SAPCs have the same status as the "Joint Parliamentary Committees" that are in place for some other enlargement countries. The Stabilisation and Association Agreements spelled out this change:

"A political dialogue at parliamentary level shall take place within the framework of the Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee".

Composition

In addition to its 13 full members, the European Parliament's Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo Delegation counts 13 substitute members.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's and Kosovo's delegations to the joint committee also respectively include 13 full members and 13 substitutes, providing a balanced counterpart to the European Parliament's group.

Mr Romeo FRANZ (Greens/EFA, DE) was elected Chair of the Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina delegation on 26 September 2019.

Procedure

The Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committees normally meet twice a year, either in the European Parliament's buildings (usually in Strasbourg) or in the partner country.

Each meeting lasts normally for two half days and includes representatives of the governments, the European Commission and the European External Action Service as guests.

An agenda of each meeting usually focuses on 5-8 topics important to bilateral relations.

Each of the topics is introduced by a "first speaker", who is a SAPC member. These introductions are followed by exchanges of views with all the committee members.

The committees work to adopt a "declaration and recommendations" that are issued at the close of the meeting.

The Co-Chairs also hold a press conference after all the sessions have concluded.

Public meetings

Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committees meetings are public.

Minutes of the committee meetings are adopted at the following meeting, and audio recordings of the meetings are available on request. Some meetings may be web-streamed on the website of the European Parliament or the partner parliaments.

Distinct paths for the two committees

The EU-Kosovo Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee has met regularly and adopted recommendations at most of its meetings.

In contrast, the EU-Bosnia and Herzegovina SAPC is frozen, because it was not possible to adopt the Committee's "Rules of Procedure" (RoP) at its first meeting.

Although MEPs attempted to solve the disagreement concerning the RoP multiple times, the delegation from Bosnia and Herzegovina has so far not agreed to a compromise, that would meet the standards of parliamentary activity. The European Parliament has criticised this situation on several occasions, most prominently in its two most recent resolutions on the country:

• in 2017: "(...) BiH has remained the only enlargement country where such a body could not be properly constituted; urges the presiding bodies of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Parliament to find, without delay, a solution in order to meet the requirements of the EU's institutional and legal framework and to provide meaningful parliamentary oversight of the accession process".
• in 2019: "Deplores the fact that, owing to the attempts to introduce ethnic blocking into the SAPC's voting rules, delegates from BiH have still been unable to agree on the rules of procedure for the SAPC, which has consequently not met for three years; regrets the failure to cooperate with the European Parliament, recalls that this is a clear breach of the obligations stemming from the SAA and urges all actors to agree to and accept the SAPC's rules of procedure based on the European Parliament's recommendations on the subject".
  

Delegation visits

When travelling to each of the countries for meetings of the Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committees, the European Parliament's DSEE delegation tries to organise additional discussions with ambassadors from the EU, non-governmental organisations and civil servants. These provide useful and informed - though also sometimes divergent - views of the local situation.

MEPs also participate in field visits to projects financed from EU sources. This allows them to scrutinise how EU funds are used abroad and report back to the European Parliament's appropriate committees, in order to help the committees fulfil their budgetary, political and legislative responsibilities.