European Union countries have agreed to offer Bosnia-Herzegovina candidate status to join the 27-member bloc, RFE/RL has learned, a move that would put the Balkan country on track to eventually gain membership.
European affairs ministers are attending an ongoing meeting in Brussels on December 13 and, according to a draft of its conclusions seen by RFE/RL, they stated that "it is recommended that Bosnia- Herzegovina be granted the status of a candidate country."
The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, recommended granting Bosnia candidate member status in October, more than six years after Sarajevo formally applied to join and nearly three decades since it emerged from the 1992-95 war that left more than 100,000 people dead.
The step is expected to be formally approved by EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on December 15.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said in October that Bosnia had to fulfill a long list of conditions designed to bolster democracy and the rule of law in the Balkan country, including undergoing structural reforms of the judiciary, taking steps to fight corruption, and implementing constitutional and electoral changes in order to qualify for candidate status.
Bosnia first voiced its aspiration to join the EU in 2003, but its ethnic leaders have so far shown little inclination to set aside their differences and implement necessary reforms.
Furthermore, staunchly pro-Russian Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has increasingly threatened to separate Republika Srpska, Bosnia’s Serb entity from the rest of the country.
Last month, Varhelyi voiced optimism that Bosnia-Herzegovina will be granted candidate status to the bloc if it meets the conditions laid out recently by Brussels.
Bosnia will be joining other EU candidates -- Albania, Moldova, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine -- in a long process that can take many years and involves complex negotiations on adjusting local laws to match those of the EU.