The member states of the European Union agreed Wednesday to grant Bosnia and Herzegovina the status of candidate to join the European bloc, thus recognizing Sarajevo’s EU perspective, several diplomatic sources have confirmed to Europa Press.
This decision was reached at the meeting of European affairs ministers in Brussels and will be endorsed at the EU leaders’ summit on Thursday. The agreement follows the orientation of the European Commission, which issued its favorable opinion last October, in the framework of the efforts to revitalize the enlargement policy after the war in Ukraine.
The recognition of Bosnia comes after the steps taken by the EU to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, and to signal the European perspective to Georgia, last June and after opening accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, after years of deadlock.
The status of candidate to join the European Union is conditioned by Brussels to the fulfillment of deep reforms in justice and fight against corruption in Sarajevo, this opinion came after the assignment of the leaders of the Twenty-seven last June to evaluate the progress of the country on its way to the EU.
The leaders agreed then to give a signal to the region, in parallel to the decision to consider Ukraine and Moldova as future members of the Union. During that summit the European leaders understood that it was necessary to unblock the Balkan issue and show a clear signal of support to the region with the issue of opening negotiations of Albania and Macedonia, which was formalized in July, or the visa waiver for Kosovo, which has been agreed a few weeks ago, in an attempt to give a new impetus to European integration.
In the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its European perspective is contingent on an agenda of 14 political and democratic reforms set by the European Commission in 2019 and on progress in the agreement between Bosnian parties to unblock the political paralysis in the country. The candidate status issue was then designed as an intermediate step for Sarajevo to see the door to Europe closer and accelerate its reform agenda.
