Slovenia will strive for Bosnia’s EU candidate status
At Monday’s meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Slovenia will propose that Bosnia and Herzegovina be offered the status of a candidate country for EU membership, reports the regional information channel N1.
This comes after the European Commission last week recommended a candidate country for EU membership for the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Moldova.
The move has reawakened fears in the Western Balkans of leaving the region, as the EU focuses on war-torn Ukraine and its neighbor.
“The goal of Slovenia’s proposal to grant Bosnia and Herzegovina the status of a candidate for EU membership without delay is to immediately send a positive signal to Bosnia and the entire Western Balkans,” reads the document, which Slovenia will present to the EU. leaders.
“Such a signal for Bosnia, the start of accession negotiations with Northern Macedonia and Albania, and visa liberalization for Kosovo would reaffirm the EU’s commitment to the Western Balkans,” he added.
Slovenian President Boris Pahor highlighted this proposal at the Munich Security Conference on 22 February and has returned to the idea three times since then.
Bosnia must first pass the laws outlined in a political agreement reached last week by Bosnian party leaders in Brussels in order to begin accession negotiations.
Former Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said the EU should try to maintain balance when commenting on the European Commission’s recommendation on candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova.
“Give the green light to Ukraine, this [the EU] completely neglected one area and humiliated it in some way. First of all, I am thinking of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which also had a bloody war, “Kosor told the media, referring to the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Croatian President Zoran MIlanovic also said that EU leaders must not forget Bosnia, although he agreed with the decision to recommend EU candidate status to Ukraine.
Milanovic said this at the Prespa Dialogue forum in northern Macedonia last week, adding that “constant dumping is destroying this country”.
The European Commission’s recommendation on Ukraine and Moldova still needs the approval of all 27 Member States, which will discuss it this week. France Germany and Italy have already supported Ukraine’s candidacy, but the decision must be unanimous.
The Western Balkans are home to three EU candidate countries, Montenegro, Serbia and Northern Macedonia, and Turkey.