EU leaders have agreed to open negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina on joining the bloc, while also stressing the Balkan country would have to undertake more reforms before the talks could begin.
“Congratulations! Your place is in our European family. Today’s decision is a key step forward on your EU path,” European Council president, Charles Michel, wrote on X as leaders met at a Brussels summit.
The decision is widely seen as a historic step for Bosnia, raising hopes that the country could move beyond instability marked by ethnic rivalries and secession threats, nearly three decades after the end of a devastating war.
Bosnia has been an official candidate for membership since 2022 but needed to implement a string of reforms before getting the green light on progressing to the next stage.
“Now the hard work needs to continue so Bosnia and Herzegovina steadily advances, as your people want,” Michel said on X.
Brussels last week said the country had completed some of the steps required, but outstanding judicial and electoral reforms remain.
Elvira Habota, the chief Bosnian official for European integration, said Thursday’s decision “carries with it a wave of optimism for citizens, institutions, authorities and the whole Bosnian society”.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has reinvigorated the EU’s drive to enlarge in eastern and central Europe, with its current member states agreeing in December to start talks on joining with Ukraine and Moldova.
Launching negotiations only puts Bosnia at the start of a long process of further reforms that usually last for many years before a country finally joins the EU.
Bosnia’s regional neighbours North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania are already ahead in their efforts to join, but all remain far from membership.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Bosnia was now “fully aligned” with the EU’s foreign and security policy, was improving its management of migration flows, and adopting laws to combat both money laundering and terrorist financing.
She welcomed its agreement to include in domestic criminal records the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
And she noted further steps towards dialogue and reconciliation in the wake of the country’s 1992-1995 war, with the creation of a new peace-building committee.
At the same time as they gave the thumbs up to Bosnia, EU leaders urged Brussels to move ahead “swiftly” with the next step of starting talks with Ukraine and Moldova.
With Agence France-Presse and Reuters