The Bosnian government celebrates the “historic” step and hopes that the measure will bring new “opportunities” to the country in terms of development
The European Union (EU) takes new steps in its expansion. The Twenty-seven granted Bosnia and Herzegovina the status of candidate to join the European bloc on Tuesday, thus recognizing Sarajevo’s community perspective. The decision, which will be endorsed at the EU leaders’ summit on Thursday, was taken with jubilation by the relevant government. It is a “historic” step, they celebrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose Executive hopes that the measure will bring new “opportunities” to the country in terms of development, with a view to receiving more funds and investors.
The Bosnian Foreign Minister, Bisera Trkovic, applauded the “good news” on her Twitter account, where she recalled the contacts maintained with the different European governments and the High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrel, as well as the Enlargement Commissioner, Oliver Varhelyi, origin of a status that he considers both an “incentive” and a “recognition” of progress in the country.
fourteen reforms
This decision, conditioned by Brussels on compliance with fourteen far-reaching political and democratic reforms –among which is the fight against corruption in Sarajevo– and progress in the agreement between Bosnian parties to unblock the political paralysis in the country, comes after the steps taken by the EU to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, to signal the European perspective to Georgia and to open accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia.
The agreement follows the guidance of the European Commission, which issued its favorable opinion last October, within the framework of the efforts to revitalize the enlargement policy after the war in Ukraine, after understanding that it was necessary to unblock the Balkan issue and show a clear signal of support for the region for measures such as the exemption of visas for Kosovo, agreed a few weeks ago.
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