European Union (EU) member states today approved the granting of candidate country status for accession to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a decision that will be formally adopted by the leaders of the 27 at Thursday’s summit, European sources revealed .
The approval, which took place at a meeting of the 27 ministers responsible for European affairs, and which follows a favorable opinion from the European Commission last October, marks the first stage of a lengthy accession process for this country of approximately 3.5 million people. of the Western Balkans.
Bosnia and Herzegovina thus becomes the fifth of six countries in the Western Balkans to gain candidate status for joining the community bloc, and the only one not yet to gain the status, Kosovo, expects to formalize the request on Thursday. honestly.
The EU has developed a policy of supporting the gradual integration of the Western Balkan countries, a commitment the 27 reaffirmed at the summit celebrated in Albania last week.
In 2013, Croatia became the first country in the Western Balkans to join the EU, followed by Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania and now Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Last June, the 27 had already taken the historic decision to grant candidate country status to Ukraine and Moldova.
Accession procedures are extremely lengthy and some countries with candidate status for enlargement have therefore been waiting for many years for the formal opening of negotiations.
Among the Balkan countries, the most obvious case is that of North Macedonia, which was granted candidate status in 2005 and is still awaiting the formal start of negotiations 17 years later, even after changing its name in North Macedonia, to overcome a dispute with Greece. It was of little use, as Bulgaria has blocked the formal opening of talks in recent years due to language clashes.
As for Albania, Tirana saw it gain candidate status in 2014, it waited six years for the Council to approve the formal opening of negotiations, but it has also been held hostage by Skopje’s Bulgarian veto, as the EU has decided to deal with the two candidacies in block.
Montenegro, for its part, was granted candidate status in 2010 – two years after the application was submitted – and negotiations have been going on for a decade, since 2012, when Serbia was in turn granted the status , negotiations started two years later, in 2014, and progressed slowly.
However, the most egregious case of a lengthy process comes from outside the Western Balkans – this is the case of Turkey, which was granted candidate status in 1999, with negotiations starting in 2005, but ‘frozen’ since 2016, it is understood the EU that Ankara has increasingly deviated from the European way and values.
Source: DN
