Bosnia's future lies within Europe

The Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Bakir Izetbegovic met European Union leaders here Wednesday to discuss the EU Integration of BiH and the EU-BiH relations. President of the EU Council Herman van Rompuy told reporters after meeting the Bosnian leader that Izetbegovic's first visit to Brussels comes at "an important and encouraging moment." "BiH has overcome a long political stalemate, which followed the October 2010 elections. A new state level government was established last month and many other important developments have taken place," said Van Rompuy. "The European Union welcomes this positive momentum. We encourage the Bosnian leaders to remain united and continue economic and political reforms. Such reforms will also speed up progress towards the European Union," he added. On his part, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters after a separate meeting with Izetbegovic that they had "an open and constructive discuss ion on BiH's European future". "You are European citizens, you are members of our community as a Europe, you are Europeans," stressed Barroso. On his part, Izetbegovic told reporters that "there are a lot of things in Bosnia with which I disagree unfortunately, but there is one point in which we have consensus, this is our European part and It will be in the future and this is the reason of my first visit to Brussels, to come here to send a message". The Bosnian leader also met with the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz.