Bosnia and Herzegovina and SIGMA

Status: EU potential candidate
Capital City: Sarajevo
Population: 3.8 million
Currency: Convertible mark (BAM)

The Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) came into force on 1 June 2015. Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) submitted its application to join the EU on 15 February 2016 and is now a potential candidate for membership.

On 29 May 2019, the Commission adopted its Opinion on the EU membership application of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Opinion is a milestone in EU-Bosnia and Herzegovina relations, confirming that the EU is committed to guide and support the country in undertaking the necessary reforms on its path towards European integration.

The Commission Opinion identifies 14 key priorities for the country to fulfil in order to be recommended for the opening of EU accession negotiations; it provides a comprehensive roadmap for incremental reforms. The key priorities cover the areas of democracy/functionality; rule of law; fundamental rights; and public administration reform – the fundamentals of the EU accession process.

SIGMA is supporting the public administration reform efforts of BiH and is currently working with:

• The PAR Co-ordinator's Office and PAR co-ordinators of both Entities and the Brčko District on strengthening public administration reform co-ordination and management of implementation of PAR by providing methodological advice, establishing the monitoring and reporting system on implementation of the PAR Strategic Framework.

• The PAR Co-ordinator's Office on co-ordinating the reform of legislation regulating administrative procedures.

• The respective ministries at different BiH levels on improving the legislative framework in the area of civil service.

• The respective ministries at different BiH levels on improving the legislative framework in the area of free access to public information.

• The Brčko District on supporting their efforts to reorganise the public administration.  

• The respective ministries at different BiH levels on the implementation of specific measures and actions for the Public Financial Management Reform Strategy and Action Plan.

• The respective Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) at different BiH levels on development of systems to support implementation of Strategic Plans and the harmonisation of audit methodologies. 

• The Public Procurement Agency on supporting development of the legislative framework and strategy for public procurement.

Publications

Related links

Events

Country co-ordination

Monitoring Report 2021 / Executive Summary / All 2021 Reports

The Principles of Public Administration for EU candidate countries and potential candidates

Enlargement strategy and reports

Publications in Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian (BSC)

More publications

EU relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina

EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina

News on Bosnia and Herzegovina

More countries

Events calendar

Marian Lemke

Country manager
marian.lemke@oecd.org
Tel: +33 1 45 24 13 18 

Héloïse Lagny Delatour

Project Co-ordinator
heloise.lagnydelatour@oecd.org
Tel: +33 1 45 24 78 25