Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to show determination in taking concrete steps to build a sustainable track record in countering and eradicating corrupt practices, it was concluded today in Sarajevo at the Conference that gathered high-level speakers from EU and BiH together with anti-corruption experts from all over the country, including representatives from the civil society.

The EU supports BiH continously on its path towards EU integration in effectively countering corruption. Prevention and repression of corruption require full attention from an early stage in the EU Accession Process, and the opening of the respective chapters of the EU acquis will be based on tangible results.

Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, Head of the EU Delegation to BiH and EU Special Representative in BiH, welcomed in his opening remarks that BiH recently made some progress in addressing a few of the outstanding GRECO recommendations, but that still a lot of works needs to be done. “Next to more ambitious efforts to build a legislative and institutional framework capable to address also high-level corruption, BiH needs to step up transparency, ensure an open discussion with the public and better engage citizens to become “watchdogs” of the public interest,” underlined ambassador Wigemark.

The project significantly helped to advance the strategic framework to counter corruption at all levels of governance and ensured higher visibility of the institutional network for the prevention of corruption in BiH.

Director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption (APIK) Hasim Šabotić, recalled the importance of the coordination function of APIK and thanked the EU for the steady support and all the work done to fight corruption in BiH.

The Project team leader Dr Londa Esadze, provided an overview of the findings and results of the Project. In her conclusions she highlighted that “the monitoring mandate of all corruption prevention bodies in BiH needs to be further strengthened and that sufficient financial and staff resources must be made available for the successful implementation of anti-corruption strategies and action plans on all levels of governance“.

The EU Project “Capacity Development for Prevention of Corruption and Creation of Strategic Documents in the Field of Fight against Corruption in BiH” is fully financed by the European Union in the amount of EUR 200.000 under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA). The Project was designed to support the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption (APIK) along with the anti-corruption bodies and teams on entity and cantonal level.