Brussels, 15/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - Bosnia-Herzegovina officially lodged its application for EU membership during a ceremony in Brussels on Monday 15 February.
“The receipt of this application for membership is good news”, said High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini during the ceremony. “It is a day of celebration for all of us: only 20 years ago, it was in the Balkans where one of the most awful pages of European history was written. Today we celebrate another step towards a united and peaceful continent”, Mogherini and European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn stated in a joint press release.
In a year, the country has come back on the European track. In December 2014, the foreign affairs ministers adopted a renewed approach towards Bosnia-Herzegovina on its EU membership path, on the basis of a German and British proposal (see EUROPE 1192), although the country was still lagging behind its Balkans neighbours (see EUROPE 11219). “The achievements of this past year on a broad reform agenda are impressive”, Mogherini and Hahn stated in their press release.
However, the path for obtaining candidate status is still long. While the chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dragan Covic, hoped his country would “very soon” receive a positive opinion from the Council and would thus obtain its candidate status, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, said that “considerable progress was needed for the EU to examine Bosnia's membership”. After a request from the General Affairs Council, the European Commission will assess Bosnia's state of preparation. This assessment, which includes several thousand questions, will help the Council decide whether or not to grant candidate status.
“Much remains to be done” as regards reforms, Mogherini warned on arriving at the Foreign Affairs Council. For the EU, Sarajevo must make progress in implementing reforms enabling improvement of economic growth and social justice, the rule of law and public administration, the coordination mechanism on EU questions and adaptation of the stabilisation and association agreement following the accession of Croatia. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)