December 19, 2022
Bosnia is now on the lengthy road to becoming a member of the European Union after the union’s leaders granted it candidacy status. The action was taken after Kosovo officially submitted its application to join the bloc, making it the newest nation to do so.
After years of inaction, the EU’s willingness to explore letting in more of its eastern neighbors has been given new life by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
After the war-torn Ukraine and Moldova, Bosnia is now the third nation to receive candidate status in the previous six months.
The EU is worried that if countries hoping to join the organization are denied entry, forces like Russia or China may expand their influence into the Balkans.
At a session in Brussels, EU leaders gave their support for Bosnia to become a membership candidate.
“A significant signal to the people, but also a clear expectation for the new administrations to deliver on changes,” said Charles Michel, president of the European Council.
He stated on Twitter that “the EU is the future of the Western Balkans.”
The action being taken despite long-standing worries about Bosnia’s political climate, a three million-person nation beset by ethnic tensions as a result of its horrific war thirty years ago.
It is still divided between a federation of Muslim-Croats and a Serb entity that are linked by a feeble central administration.
The 1995 Dayton Agreement, which was successful in putting an end to the violence in the 1990s but generally failed in setting up a framework for the nation’s democratic development, left it with a broken administrative system.
Before Bosnia may proceed to the next step of initiating formal admission negotiations, according to the European Commission, the country must implement 14 reform priorities.
Bosnia joins the other seven countries—Turkey, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Moldova, and Ukraine—that have candidate status.
As applicants execute reforms that must be rigorously assessed by Brussels, the application process to join the European Union may take many years.
Additionally, as is the case with Turkey’s bid, it may come to a complete end.
Source: France24
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