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Verbatim report of proceedings
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Wednesday, 9 October 2024 - Strasbourg

Recent devastating floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina (debate)
MPphoto
 

  Lucia Annunziata, on behalf of the S&D Group. – Mr President, I'm just returning from the mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, so I think I can give, first, a little testimony.

Some 3.4 million people went to vote on Sunday in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was a very competitive and very delicate vote for a country that is composed not of three peoples, but of three different ethnic ethnicities: the Serbs, the Croats and the Bosniaks.

It was the Friday afternoon when all of a sudden we were hit by the news that there was a major flood that indeed had provoked 19 victims. It was around Mostar. For a moment, everybody freaked out – like we have to cancel the elections, with the rest of the election being valid. 48 hours later, happily the situation had been, in a way, brought under control. There were five municipalities that were postponed, but the situation was saved.

It was saved also because – and we were happy to see it, and we were proud to see it – the European Parliament immediately activated the Copernicus Services and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. You could see the EU rescue team in the country helping, with updated maps, with pumps, generators, excavators and more. It was frankly a good moment for Europe. We were proud to be there as Europe. It was a decisive wave not only for humanitarian things, but because I think it shows that, in a very delicate political moment, the EU could help; the EU was there, standing by Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A few words about what we were doing there. We were there as part of the OSCE/ODIHR International Election Observation Mission, and the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament had given us the mandate to observe those local elections. As you may know or may not, normally the observer missions of this Parliament do not observe local elections. In this case, though, we went because the geography, the complex social geography, was important, but mainly it was a mission as a strong sign of the European commitment to this area, to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I just would like to remind you that, on 21 March, the European Council decided to green‑light the start of accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once all the relevant state steps set out in the Commission recommendation of October 2022 are taken.

So the flood drama decision helped! This was a good chain of events.

(The President cut off the speaker)

 
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