The leaders of the EU27, meeting at the European Council on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 March, will discuss the issue of opening EU accession negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina.
According to the draft EU Council conclusions, obtained by Agence Europe, the Member States could decide, on the basis of recommendations provided by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13369/1), to open negotiations with Sarajevo. Although supported by a majority of Member States, the issue still needs to be clarified to achieve a balance, according to a European diplomat.
“Some delegations are taking a more cautious approach. The subject is being debated in the national parliaments; we'll see the result on Thursday”, summed up a European diplomatic source.
Several Member States also feel “that Bosnia-Herzegovina is being treated more harshly than Ukraine and Moldova and want to see parallelism”, said another European source.
Described by a source at the Elysée Palace as “the main enlargement issue on the table of the Heads of State or Government”, the overall orientation emerging on the subject is “to note that some progress has been made, to encourage and to give a political signal in favour of the pro-European forces and the reform movement that can be seen in Bosnia-Herzegovina”, while at the same time, however, it must ensure that “the process is robust” and point out that the framework for negotiations, which must be adopted unanimously, will not be discussed at this European Council.
On this point, the draft conclusions state that EU leaders should invite the EU Council “to adopt the negotiating framework once the relevant measures set out in the Commission's recommendation of 12 October 2022 have been taken”.
“The actual decision to open and adopt the negotiating frameworks will only be taken once the full criteria have been met”, confirmed the Élysée source.
“It is important to encourage Bosnia to continue along the path towards the rule of law, but this will not mean much in material terms, as the real negotiations will only begin once the framework has been adopted”, added a senior EU official.
On the eve of the European Council, Italy, Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia called for the opening of negotiations with this Western Balkan country, arguing that it had implemented “more substantial reforms in recent weeks and months than in previous years”. The seven Member States consider it “essential” to open negotiations, failing which “the EU’s role in the Western Balkans would be weakened and a negative message would be sent to the region as a whole”.
The issue had already been discussed by the Member States in December. They decided to adhere to the recommendations of the then European Commission, which called for negotiations to be opened “once the necessary degree of compliance with the accession criteria has been achieved” (see EUROPE 13314/1), which, according to the Commission, is now the case.
See the draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/bfg (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)