Brussels, 26/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 26 January, the chairman of the presidential college of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Dragan Covic, announced that his country was to submit an application for accession to the European Union on 15 February, three days before the meeting of the European Council.
“It is now quite definitive and clear that we have got the” green light from the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU to “submit the application” for accession on 15 February, Covic said in Sarajevo, the agency Reuters reports. “It is realistic that we get candidate status at the beginning of the next year”, he added.
The European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, recently warned that the country had still to fully implement the association and stabilisation agreement and have a mechanism in place to work with the EU before making such an application (see EUROPE 11471). (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)