Bosnian accession on EU agenda next week

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The EU will recommend that member states open accession negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), a candidate for membership since 2022, European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday, 12 March.

Wary of Russian influence, von der Leyen said “We have realised that it is not enough to just wait for the Western Balkans to move closer to us. We must … support their path towards our Union in any possible way”. EU leaders will discuss the EC’s recommendation in Brussels next week. 

Von der Leyen said “More progress has been achieved in just over a year than in over a decade. First, BiH is now fully aligned with our foreign and security policy, which is crucial in these times of geopolitical turmoil.”

“The country is showing that it can deliver on the membership criteria, and on its citizens’ aspiration to be part of our family. The message coming from BiH is clear. So our message must be clear too. The future of BiH lies in our Union.”

BiH entity close to Kremlin

Central and Eastern European countries Austria, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovenia have all called for BiH’s EU membership to proceed at the same rate as Ukraine’s. 

A major sticking point for some EU members, however, could be pro-Kremlin separatist Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik, who said in December he plans to weaken the country until it reaches breaking point.

Last October, the EC expressed concern in a report regarding Republika Srpska, one of the BiH’s two territorial entities, advocating for neutrality over Russia’s land invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Last month Dodik met Russian President Vladimir Putin for the fourth time since the invasion.

Muted response from Dodik

In response to the EC’s recommendation, he said “it doesn’t mean much” given the lack of an accession date. “The European path is important for us because it represents a fulfilment of a big national goal – Serbs living in a single economic and political area without borders,” Dodik added. 

EU candidates face lengthy accession processes to align their laws, institutions and economies to the bloc’s norms.  BiH, along with Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia, is one of six Balkan countries currently in an EU accession process. Ethnic tensions in BiH are ongoing, almost 3 decades after the end of the 1992-95 war that killed over 100,000 people.