The Council of the EU decided on Tuesday 13 December to grant EU candidate country status to Bosnia and Herzegovina, subject to confirmation by the European Council on Thursday 15 December.
This will be done “on the understanding that the steps specified in the Commission’s recommendation (of October 2022, editor’s note) are taken, in order to strengthen the rule of law, the fight against corruption and organised crime, migration management and fundamental rights”, says the Council in its conclusions (see EUROPE 13041/13).
In the current geopolitical context, it said, there is an “urgency for the country to move forward on its EU path, in particular via fulfilling all 14 key priorities for the opening of EU accession negotiations identified in the Commission’s Opinion on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s application for EU membership” of 2019.
Ministers also call on all Bosnian political leaders to swiftly implement the commitments set out in the agreement reached on 12 June 2022 and to urgently finalise the constitutional and electoral reform in line with the key priorities.
Despite this positive opinion, the Council notes “with concern the overall limited progress in reforms” and stresses the need to strengthen the rule of law and to take decisive action to reinforce the prevention and fight against corruption and organised crime.
At the end of the Council, the Czech Secretary of State for European Affairs, Mikuláš Bek, described the granting of this status as a “historic moment for Bosnia and Herzegovina”. He believes the country will use this opportunity to accelerate its reforms. For his part, Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič said that the award and the conclusions adopted were “important signals from the EU to the Western Balkans, especially in this new geopolitical context”.
Bosnian satisfaction
Bosnian Foreign Minister Bisera Turković expressed her satisfaction, calling the granting of the status an “enormous and historic step towards EU membership”. Her country applied for membership on 15 February 2016 (see EUROPE 11490/1).
“Candidate status is an encouragement and recognition” especially of “the enormous effort that has been invested to fulfil the conditions, but also, to a large extent, in the struggle to present the truth about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (...) and to stop any attempt to jeopardise the progress already made” the minister stressed on Twitter. She believed that this also meant the opening up new channels of cooperation with the EU, new financial funds and new investments.
The Council conclusions also address the situation of the other Western Balkan countries: Montenegro (see other news), Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia, which opened accession negotiations in July 2022 (see EUROPE 12996/2), and Kosovo, which is expected to submit its application for EU membership in the next few days, if not hours (see EUROPE 13078/2).
The text also looks at Turkey, as well as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. In June, Ukraine and Moldova were granted candidate status and Georgia’s European perspective was recognised (see EUROPE 12978/1).
See the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/4nm (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)