Public announcement of network "Citizens for Europe"

Improvement of business environment is essential for the economic development of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, it is of utmost importance in the pre-election period to insist on solving urgent issues in this field. The network "Citizens for Europe", as an organization that advocates for the reform movement in the process of EU integration, urges all political entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to keep their election campaigns focused on improving the business environment by making concrete solutions for solving administrative problems related to startup of new companies, and relieve economic pressure on micro, small and medium enterprises.

Center for Policy and Governance (CPU), a member organization of the network, created analyses of BiH’s progress in the last four years within its project “Promoting political accountability”, with an aim to focus on economic issues in the election campaign and to encourage social and economic policy debates. According to the analysis of competitiveness of BiH economy, difficulties are evident not only in process of business startup, but also in obtaining construction permits and getting electricity. In addition to that, further aggravating circumstances for entrepreneurs are weak investor protection, complex procedures for paying taxes, difficulties with trade across borders and high taxation of labor. Urgency in solving these issues were also pointed out by NBR Gradačac and LINK Mostar (with joint platform of SMEs LEDNet), both member organizations of network „Citizens for Europe“. 

In post-election period, member organizations of the network will engage in dialogue with new political subjects forming governments at all levels, in order to help newly elected decision-makers in finding quality solutions for improvement of business environment with their expertise. Also, member organizations will monitor activities of both legislative and executive government in this field during entire mandate, with continuous advocacy for improvement. 

Network “Citizens for Europe”