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THE EU COMMISSION is recommending that member states open membership talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was given a list of policy reforms to implement two years ago to move forward in its bid to join the block.
The country is one of five in the Western Balkans to be a candidate but EU membership, but it is the only one not to have started formal negotiations towards accession.
It still needs the approval of EU Council, which is made up of the leaders of the 27 member states, before the negotiations can open. The Council is due to meet next week.
Speaking to the European Parliament, EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said that Bosnia and Herzegovina “is showing that it can deliver on its membership criteria, and on its citizens’ aspiration to be part of our family”.
For that reason, she said, the Commission had decided to recommend to the EU Council that it open accession negotiations.
She said that “more progress is necessary to join our union” but that “Bosnia and Herzegovina has taken impressive steps towards us” and “more progress has been achieved in just over a year than in over a decade”.
She said Bosnia and Herzegovina was now “fully aligned” with the EU’s foreign and security policy, is improving how it manages migration flows, and is adopting laws against money laundering and terrorist financing.
She also welcomed its agreement to include judgements of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in its domestic criminal records and noted continued progress on dialogue and reconciliation following the war that took place in 1992-1995, including the creation of a new peace-building committee.
The drive to expand the EU to include more countries in eastern Europe was reignited by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
In the Western Balkans, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania are already in talks to join.
The EU Council also approved opening of membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova in December.
Additional reporting by AFP
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Western European values are not the same as Eastern Europe and the larger the Euro Zone gets the more STRESS it will experience and that will cause it to crack into two as what happened to the Roman Empire. History repeats itself…
@Solar Luna: The EU does have the advantage of being a partnership rather than an empire. Countries/territories didn’t ask to join an empire.
@Brendan O’Brien: … and they can’t choose to leave.
@Solar Luna: Bosnia&Herzegovina is already in the eurozone, thanks to its currency having been pegged to (or replaced by, even) the Deutsche Mark in the 90s
@Brendan O’Brien: Put a frog into warm water and it jumps out, put him into cold then you can cook him. The Balkans have too much hatred for each other even to today and it goes very deep and that’s the issue. Many might want EU money and many might think that this will cure the hatred they have for each other but their culture fuels it. That is the problem, politics and culture wrapped up in religion with a memory of WW1 and the Nazis in WW2… and then the 90s on top?
@Jerry LeFrog: It will end up like inlaws at a Romeo and Juliet weding I fear.
The EU is far from a partnership – it’s more like a dictatorship run by Germany & France.
@Toby Thedogk: That is simply untrue.
@Toby Thedogk: says a man who has no idea what he’s talking about
@Toby Thedogk: Funnily enough that’s how it started too – to legalise a mining cartel between France and Germany. Absolutely nothing to do with peace as we’re so often told.
@Toby Thedogk: The EU feels like the one’s who buy over good companies in order to strip them down, sell what they can and then what is left they will sell off as Internet companies.
No no no. This is going much too far. Such a gigantic move/ expansion requires the agreement of the majority of the EU’s population. Some time ago we had countries such as Romania etc foisted upon us. How far more will this go? Turkey? Isreal? UAE?
@Patrice Ahern: Country like Romania? For Romania EU accesion, 17 years ago, was gold, average wage was 300 euro back then, now is 1000 (1500 in big cities), and by 2030 will be bigger than in Spain or Portugal (already Romania is richer than Hungary, Greece, Slovakia, etc). Also Romania, with Poland and Baltics, is one of the future EU superpowers. Already thousands of Irish people moved to Romania (specially in Transylvania and Cluj, its capital, but also in Bucharest or Timisoara) and it’s an upward trend. Expanding EU to the East was and is really good for peace, prosperity, etc.
@Chris: I respectfully disagree because if things were as honky dory as you mentioned then why there are so many Romanians ( over 5 millions ) living abroad? The official language in some parts of Dublin is Romanian,and tells a different tale.
@Chris: , Sorry, typo error: Hunky dory
It’s time for a new EU treaty that represents the world we live in now, which is very different to 10 years ago and completely different to when Lisbon was implemented. Keep free travel but only to those without criminal records. Increase the length of time and amount of PRSI contributions before someone csn avail of Social Welfare. And make it easier to kick countries out if they behave like Hungary etc.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: you are aware that means a very significant chunk of Irish population (Keep free travel but only to those without criminal records) will not have free travel.
@Chris: yes I am aware. I don’t want eastern European drug gangs setting up in Dublin and I’m sure Spain and The Netherlands don’t want Irish gangs setting up there. Sex offenders can currently move between EU countries with little or no tracking. I’m not talking about banning someone who doesn’t pay a TV licence, but serious criminals should be banned from setting up home in another EU country.
@DGQ: It is perfectly possible to enter the USA with a criminal record, Homeland Security regularly issue waivers to people with minor convictions.
@Steve O’Hara Smith.: do we share criminal record info with the USA? Genuine question. How do they if someone had a criminal record?
I welcome this development
It’ll be great to have Bosnia Herzegovina in the EU
@james rowan: An expanding EU will mean expanding peace, prosperity and security.
@Brendan O’Brien: early release for Ratko and myself would be a huge step forward
@Brendan O’Brien: and an expanding welfare bill
@Brendan O’Brien: an expanding EU MAY interfere with and undermine hard fought Democracy and human rights.
Great news.
The EU is becoming like a giant star which will eventually collapse under its own weight. I have nothing against Bosnia or other states to join the EU ,however the EU member states have been struggling with their own domestic problems ( Economy, health,housing and energy prices, etc) and more countries joining means more cheap labour available for the ruling class.
Id rather see Bosnia join the EU than Ukraine, Albania or Georgia.
have your say