EU leaders have agreed to open talks with Bosnia-Herzegovina on joining the bloc but said "hard work" lies ahead for the country to move forward on its membership application.
"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 said on X, formerly Twitter, as leaders met in Brussels for a summit. "Now the hard work needs to continue so Bosnia and Herzegovina steadily advances, as your people want."
The leaders also issued a statement on the decision to give Bosnia the green light to open accession talks, saying it builds on the European Commission’s March 12 recommendation to the European Council to grant the opening of membership talks with Sarajevo.
"The European Council invites the Commission to prepare the negotiating framework with a view to its adoption by the Council the moment all relevant steps set out in the Commission recommendation of 12 October 2022 are taken,” the statement said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the European Union's executive body would recommend that member states open accession negotiations with Bosnia.
“Of course, more progress is necessary to join our union," von der Leyen said on March 12 in a speech to the European Parliament. "But the country is showing that it can deliver on the membership criteria, and on its citizens’ aspiration to be part of our family.”
The recommendation, together with a progress report commissioned in December, were the basis for discussions by EU leaders at the summit.
Bosnia was granted EU candidate status in December 2022. One year later, European leaders confirmed their readiness to grant the opening of accession talks, but also invited the European Commission to submit a report by March on the level to which key criteria had been implemented.
According to EU officials, Bosnia has made more progress in the past year than in the previous decade.
Despite the announcement, talks between Sarajevo and Brussels will not start immediately. A negotiating framework must be adopted first. For this to happen, Bosnia must fulfill 14 priorities.