This decision must be approved unanimously before the opening of negotiations for the accession of the country.
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Six years later, will Bosnia and Herzegovina’s application for membership of the European Union (EU) go forward? The European Commission recommends that the 27 members of the EU grant the country candidate status, Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi announced on Wednesday.
“It’s something we can and should do”, he assured the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. This first green light will have to be approved unanimously by the Member States before the opening of negotiations with a view to accession.
Obtaining candidate status is the start of a long process, with the Commission setting up a “pre-accession strategy” : a support program for the reforms necessary for integration, accompanied by financial assistance.
oliver Varhelyi insisted on the “geopolitical implications of this choice”. A country divided into two entities since the end of the conflict which claimed 100,000 lives between 1992 and 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina is threatened by separatist temptations. European leaders announced in June that they were ready to grant the country candidate status after a summit with their Western Balkan counterparts.
Seven countries are already officially candidates for EU membership: Turkey (1999, a process now frozen), North Macedonia (2005), Montenegro (2010), Serbia (2012), Albania (2014), Ukraine and Moldova (2022).