Russia’s war against Ukraine has strengthened the EU’s readiness to accept new members.
Bosnia became the third country, after Ukraine and Moldova, to be granted EU candidate status in the past six months.
The EU fears that powers like Russia or China could extend their influence in the Balkans if the countries’ hopes of joining the bloc are dashed.
EU leaders agreed at a summit in Brussels that Bosnia becomes a candidate for admission.
European Council President Charles Michel called the move “a strong signal to the nation, but also a clear expectation that the new authorities must implement reforms”.
“The future of the Western Balkans is the EU,” Michel tweeted.
The candidate status was granted despite lingering concerns over the political situation in Bosnia, which is still divided into a Serbian republic and a Croatian-Muslim federation linked by a weak central government.
Bosnia’s dysfunctional system of governance was created by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the armed conflict but did not provide a basis for the country’s political development.
The European Commission has outlined 14 priorities for the reforms that Bosnia needs to undertake before it can move to the next stage: formal accession negotiations.
Seven other countries have EU candidate status: Turkey, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti submitted the country’s application for EU membership on Thursday, officially starting the process of joining the bloc. However, Kosovo’s path to joining the bloc may be complicated by the fact that its independence has not yet been recognized by five EU member states: Greece, Spain, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus.
