During the visit of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday 28 February (see other article), the country officially returned its questionnaire to the Commission with a view to obtaining EU accession candidate country status.
"This is an important day for Bosnia-Herzegovina and the EU", Juncker said at a press conference with Dragan Čović, a member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's presidency.
Juncker said he thought Sarajevo had carried out this "Herculean task" in a short space of time. The country has taken six months to write its 25,000 pages of responses to the 3,200 questions put to it by the Commission – which is a "remarkable job", Juncker said.
"The substance is more important than the dates", he nevertheless warned. "I can't promise a date on which your country will have candidate status", he added. He also said the Commission would examine the responses and, if necessary, send further questions. Speaking before the Bosnian Parliament, Juncker called on the country to work with the Commission "in a spirit of unity so that it can recommend, when the time comes, your official candidature for accession". Back in June, the president of the country's Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdić, said he hoped his country would obtain candidate status in the first half of 2018 (see EUROPE 11812).
In a press release, the European Parliament's rapporteur on Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cristian Dan Preda, hailed the return of the questionnaire. He nevertheless warned that while the return of the responses is a very positive development, the adoption of all the reforms linked to the EU, particularly those linked to the fight against corruption, the depoliticisation of the judiciary and public administration, and fundamental rights, should be accelerated in order to obtain candidate country status.
Bosnia requested to join the EU on 15 February 2016 (see EUROPE 11490). In December the same year, it received the Commission's questionnaire (see EUROPE 11687). After implementing a coordination mechanism to organise its response process, which took seven to eight months, the country responded to all the questions in six months. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)