The Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina has welcomed as a «historic» step the agreement between the 27 European Union member states to grant the country candidate status to join the bloc, as they look forward to new «opportunities» in development.
The Bosnian Foreign Minister, Bisera Turkovic, has applauded on Twitter the «good news» that arrived this Tuesday morning from Brussels, where the heads of European Affairs of the EU-27 have met. The decision will be endorsed at the summit of EU leaders on Thursday.
Turkovic recalled the contacts held with the various European governments and also with the High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, and the Commissioner for Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, the origin of a status that he considers both an «incentive» and a «recognition» of the progress made in Bosnia.
The Minister is confident that new avenues of collaboration with the EU are now opening up, with a view to receiving more funds and more investors.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 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.