After the Ukraine and Moldova, the European Union is now officially including the Balkan country in the list of candidate countries.
In mid-October, the flag of the European Union was projected onto the building of the national library in the Bosnian capital. On that day, the EU Commission recommended making the country an official candidate for accession.
(dpa) The European Union has officially accepted the Balkan country Bosnia-Herzegovina as a candidate for accession. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the other heads of state and government of the EU states made a corresponding decision at a summit meeting in Brussels on Thursday, as confirmed by an EU official and several diplomats.
The Europe Ministers of the EU countries had already made a corresponding recommendation on Tuesday. The reason was also the concern that Bosnia-Herzegovina could increasingly orient itself towards Russia or China.
After Ukraine and Moldova
In June, following a Commission recommendation, the EU states officially named Ukraine and Moldova as candidates for EU membership. However, accession negotiations are only to begin once the reform requirements have been met. This procedure should now also apply to the Balkan country of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which has around 3.3 million inhabitants.
In the course of the decision in favor of Ukraine and Moldova, EU states such as Austria in particular had urged that Bosnia-Herzegovina also go down this path. The country was given the prospect of joining the EU in 2003 and officially submitted an application for membership in 2016. In 2019, however, it was decided that the country should only be granted candidate status once it had fulfilled 14 reform requirements. The EU Commission recently emphasized that it is still crucial for the start of accession negotiations that the conditions are met.
Of the six Western Balkan countries, only the Republic of Kosovo is now not a candidate for accession. However, the country officially applied for membership of the European Union this week. For the youngest state in Europe, it was a rather symbolic act: EU membership is currently not within reach for the country, which has been independent since 2008. The main obstacle to EU rapprochement is that five EU countries – Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus – do not recognize Kosovo.