Vice President Karadžić Jovičević at the opening ceremony of the EU Twinning Project in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH

 The opening ceremony of the European Union (EU) Twinning Project entitled "Strengthening and continuing support to BiH parliaments in the context of European integration" took place in the grand hall of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A project worth 2.3 million euros, which will include the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Brčko District Assembly, and the Cantonal Assembly in the next two years, will be a consortium made of the National Assembly of Hungary,The Austrian Parliament and the Croatian Parliament.

In addressing the participants, the Vice-President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, Sonja Karadzic Jovicevic, expressed her satisfaction for being a part of the event marking the beginning of another twinning project aimed at further strengthening the role of the Parliament on BiH's integration path towards the EU.

"Now it is quite clear that the process of European integration is not the property of only one level of government," the vice president of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska said.
She pointed out that the dispersion of this process to entity and cantonal parliaments shows that the process of European integration belongs to them, but most importantly to all citizens of BiH.
Sonja Karadzic Jovicevic stressed that the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska took over most of the recommendations made in one of the previous Twinning projects and included them in the new Rules of procedure, which was adopted two years ago.

The National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska will continue to actively participate in the realization of activities on this project in order to achieve the set goals and to strengthen the role of parliamentary bodies, as well as their cooperation and coordination.

"Also, the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska remains committed to its role in supporting the institutions of the Republic of Srpska in the process of BiH's accession to the European Union and remains unambiguously committed to the European integrations and full membership of the country in the EU," Sonja Karadzic Jovicevic stressed.
She expressed the hope that the position of Republika Srpska will be clearly visible, while respecting the constitutional competences and concluded that she was convinced of the success of the project.

Head of the Justice and Home Affairs and Public Administration Reform Unit in the Delegation of the European Union to BiH said that the relations between BiH and the EU have entered a more intensive phase and emphasized the importance of the Twinning project in establishing close relations and contacts between BiH parliaments and parliaments of EU member states.

In addition to the consortium of the parliaments of Hungary, Austria and Croatia, representatives of the parliaments of Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and Slovakia, as well as more than 60 experts from EU Member States will take part in the implementation of the Twinning project.

This is the third twinning project that the EU implements in BiH parliaments. The previous projects enabled the signing of the BiH Parliamentary Cooperation Mechanism in the affairs of European integration, as well as the creation of special EU units in the secretariats of the parliaments with the task of continuing communication and cooperation with the EU institutions, as well as the continuation of the implementation of EU projects in parliaments in BiH.