The Heads of State and Government of the European Union (EU), meeting this Thursday in Brussels, formally approved the attribution of the status of candidate country for the accession of Bosnia-Herzegovina, agreed by the 27 last Tuesday.
The European Council endorses the conclusions of the Council [de Assuntos Gerais] of December 13, 2022 on the Enlargement and the Stabilization and Association Process, and agrees to grant the status of candidate country to Bosnia and Herzegovina”, reads the conclusions adopted by the European leaders.
The political agreement of the 27th had been reached during a meeting of ministers of the European Affairs portfolio held on Tuesday in Brussels, following the favorable recommendation of the European Commission last October. It is the first stage of a long accession process for this country of around 3.5 million people in the Western Balkans.
Bosnia-Herzegovina thus becomes the fifth of the six Western Balkan countries to obtain the status of a candidate country for accession to the EU bloc. Kosovo, the only one that has not yet obtained it, presented its formal application for membership on Thursday in Prague.
Kurti insisted that the initiative constitutes a “historic” achievement for the former Serbian province and said that he hopes to receive “as soon as possible” the questionnaire that Pristina will have to fill in for the continuation of this complex process, reported the Kosova Press. news agency, reporting on the visit.
The head of the Czech Government for the EU, Mikulas Bek, considered, in turn, that European integration constitutes “a guarantee of peace and prosperity” for the entire Balkan region.
The EU has been developing a policy of support for the progressive integration of the Western Balkan countries, a commitment reaffirmed by the 27 at the summit held between the parties last week in Albania. In 2013, Croatia became the first country in the Western Balkans to join the EU, with Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania officially candidate countries.
Last June, the 27 had already made the historic decision to grant the status of candidate countries to Ukraine and Moldova. Accession processes are extremely long and therefore some of the enlargement candidate countries have 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 received candidate country status in 2005, and 17 years later is still waiting for the formal start of negotiations, even after having already changed its name to that of North Macedonia, to overcome a dispute with Greece. It was of little use, since in recent years it has been Bulgaria that has blocked the formal opening of the talks, due to language disputes.
As for Albania, Tirana saw itself granted candidate country status in 2014, waited six years for the Council to approve the formal opening of negotiations, but is also held hostage by the Bulgarian veto on Skopje, as the EU has decided to deal with the two candidacies en bloc.
For its part, Montenegro saw its candidate status granted in 2010 — two years after the application was submitted — and negotiations have been going on for 10 years, since 2012, the year Serbia in turn received the status, with negotiations beginning two years later in 2014 and progressing slowly.
However, the most flagrant case of a long process comes from outside the Western Balkans: this is the case of Turkey, which was granted candidate country status in 1999, with negotiations beginning in 2005, but ‘frozen’. ‘ since 2016, due to the EU. understands that Ankara has deviated more and more from the European path and values.
Source: Observadora
