EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi says he is optimistic Bosnia-Herzegovina will be granted candidate status to join the bloc next month if it meets several conditions laid out recently by Brussels.
Speaking during a meeting in Sarajevo on November 28 with Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Varhelyi noted the conditions, which include fighting corruption and organized crime, judicial and immigration reforms, and guarantees of freedom of expression and the protection of journalists -- areas that have proven elusive in the highly divided nation.
"The European path is open, but results are expected of Bosnia. It is up to the political leaders for that to become a reality," Varhelyi said after meeting with presidency members Denis Becirovic, Zeljko Komsic, and Zeljka Cvijanovic.
The European Commission in October recommended candidacy status for Bosnia, but attached a long list of conditions designed to bolster democracy in the Balkan country.
But the commission only advises which countries should become EU candidates. The final decision lies with the 27 member states, and they must agree unanimously.
Some countries -- notably Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia -- have pushed for speeding up Bosnia's entry after Moldova and Ukraine were granted candidate status in June.
Others, including the Netherlands, are said to be less receptive to expansion, though Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in late February has eroded resistance amid security fears for the whole of Europe.
Varhelyi said the European Commission "wants to see clear results it can report to the Council of the EU that is meeting in December," which is supposed to decide on the candidacy status of Bosnia, as "we are in a new geopolitical moment of the war in Ukraine."
"It is in our interest to strengthen our partnerships," he said.
Bosnia comprises a Bosniak-Croatian entity known as the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose budget is about four times that of the national government, as well as the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and a tiny self-governing district that acts much like a municipality, Brcko. The federation is further divided into 10 cantons.
Cvijanovic, who holds the Serbs' seat on the Bosnian presidency, said she was committed to work "on matters that we can," while Becirovic, the Bosniak member, said the meeting with Varhelyi was "encouraging and substantial."
"Our candidacy status would be an encouragement to all the people in Bosnia-Herzegovina," he added.
Zeljko Komsic, a Bosnian Croat, is the third member of the presidency.
Bosnia's division into a Bosniak-Croatian federation, and Republika Srpska, came under the terms of the 1995 Dayton agreements that ended three years of war in the former Yugoslav republic that was marked by ethnic cleansing and brutality.