The European Commission has proposed to member states that Bosnia and Herzegovina should be declared a candidate country for EU membership. Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi spoke on Twitter on Wednesday of a “historic opportunity” for the EU. At the end of June, the EU had already granted candidate status to Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova as a signal to Moscow.
According to Varhelyi, the recommendation for Bosnia-Herzegovina is linked to a number of reform steps in the country. Brussels had recently insisted on reforms in the judiciary and administration in the country with more than three million inhabitants. The Balkan state had applied for admission to the European Union in 2016. All 27 EU countries must agree to the candidate status.
In the course of the decision in favor of Ukraine and Moldova, countries such as Austria in particular had urged that conditions for reform be set for Bosnia-Herzegovina as well. 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. In the previous report, the EU Commission came to the conclusion that there had recently been little progress.
