Statement by the Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union on the State Aid Council

Commenting on the first meeting of the State Aid Council, Dr Renzo Daviddi, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the EU to Bosnia and Herzegovina, said:  
 
“We welcome  the  inaugural meeting of the State Aid Council. The establishment and functioning of the State Aid Council is one of the key priorities for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s European integration process.

The EU has established clear rules and conditions under which financial assistance from governments may be granted to businesses. The role of the Council is to ensure that these rules are implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This is good news for consumers and businesspeople as these rules help to prevent one particular company or producer having a dominant market position due to government assistance. The competition maintained between businesses keeps prices down.

Because competition between businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina will then work in a similar way to that in the free market of the EU, Bosnia and Herzegovina will be nearer to EU standards.

To achieve this, the State Aid Council will supervise the implementation of the State Aid Law, which is fully compatible with the relevant EU legislation, and is an obligation from the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA). We underline that the EU also did its part. In exchange for Bosnia and Herzegovina accepting this international obligation, the European Union opened its market  ‘asymmetrically’ , that is to say we are liberalising trade from our side faster than Bosnia and Herzegovina on its side. This applies to almost all products of Bosnia and Herzegovina origin, in particular industrial goods.

BiH must now speed up the full implementation of the State Aid Law to help the country’s economic growth and competitiveness in the global environment in which we live and work nowadays.”

Europa.ba