ČOVIĆ: SOMEONE ALWAYS "PULLS THE CHAIR" AND RUINS AGREEMENT REACHED BY PARTNER

MOSTAR, NOVEMBER 22 /SRNA/ - HDZ Leader Dragan Čović has said today that someone always does his/her best to "pull the chair" and ruins the agreement reached by the partners in BiH, calling on foreign factors to leave decision-making to local structures.

"We got off to a very good start, but it seems as soon as we get off to a good start, someone does his/her best to pull the chair on which we are sitting. I hope it won't be like that now. We put everything we are to agree on until December 4 into our plan to finish next week. I still believe that we will succeed," Čović stated in Mostar. Commenting on the disagreements regarding the fulfillment of the requirements the European Commission set before BiH in order to unblock funds from the Growth Plan, Čović stated that two laws, the Growth Plan and the appointment of the main negotiator with the EU, are in the final phase of agreement, thus the framework for all of this. "As soon as someone appears who imposes some solutions and disrupts the relations, no matter who that is, it seems to me that he/she always gives a tool to one of the partners sitting at the table to problematize it or conditioning it with their further participation in the work," said Čović. He expressed the hope that this will not happen this time, although there have already been indications today that there will be a delay in scheduling the Council of Ministers’ session, which should not happen. Čović emphasized that BiH has a chance to open the process, submit the Growth Plan and open the First Chapter of negotiations. "I call on all our friends from abroad who want good to BiH, to leave it to the local structures, which have responsibility in the executive and legislative power, to make decisions. Any help from the outside is superfluous," Čović said. He pointed out that the progress in the negotiations of the partners in the government is obvious, which was evident from the statements made after the meetings in Banja Luka and East Sarajevo. "Everything could have been finished by December 4. Jumping in with statements and decisions made by someone outside the institutions of BiH can halt everything," Čović said after the closed party meeting.