EU Gives Bosnia And Herzegovina Go Ahead To Join Bloc

The Balkan country of Bosnia and Herzegovina is to begin EU membership negotiations, eight years after it formally applied to join the bloc.

The European commission – the EU’s executive arm – last week recommended that talks should begin.

EU leaders have now given the plan their approval

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, described the thumbs-up for Bosnia as a good message for the entire region.

Albania, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine have all applied to join the bloc and are at various stages of the application process.

Brussels last week said the country had completed some of the steps required, but outstanding judicial and electoral reforms remain.

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Elvira Habota, the chief Bosnian official for European integration, said Thursday’s decision carries with it a wave of optimism for citizens, institutions, authorities and the whole Bosnian society.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has reinvigorated the EU’s drive to enlarge in eastern and central Europe, with its current member states agreeing in December to start talks on joining with Ukraine and Moldova.

Launching negotiations only puts Bosnia at the start of a long process of further reforms that usually last for many years before a country finally joins the EU.

Bosnia’s regional neighbours North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania are already ahead in their efforts to join, but all remain far from membership.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Bosnia was now fully aligned with the EU’s foreign and security policy, was improving its management of migration flows, and adopting laws to combat both money laundering and terrorist financing.

She welcomed its agreement to include in domestic criminal records the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

And she noted further steps towards dialogue and reconciliation in the wake of the country’s 1992-1995 war, with the creation of a new peace-building committee.

At the same time as they gave the thumbs up to Bosnia, EU leaders urged Brussels to move ahead swiftly with the next step of starting talks with Ukraine and Moldova.