BRUSSELS, 12 Mar: The European Union\u2019s executive arm will recommend that member countries open membership negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday, despite lingering ethnic divisions in the Western Balkan country.
\nBosnia-Herzegovina is among six nations from the region \u2014 the others are Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia \u2014 who are at different stages of the EU accession process following a period of wars and crises in the 1990s.
\nTheir memberships have been stalled for years. But after Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine, EU officials are more keen on trying to lure them away from the Kremlin\u2019s influence.
\n\u201cWe have realized that it is not enough to just wait for the Western Balkans to move closer to us,\u201d von der Leyen told EU lawmakers on Tuesday. \u201cIt is not enough to say that the door is open. We must also take responsibility, and support their path towards our Union in any possible way.\u201d
\nEU leaders are expected to discuss the European Commission\u2019s recommendation at a summit scheduled in Brussels next week.
\nThe head of Bosnia\u2019s Council of Ministers, which acts as the country\u2019s government, Borjana Kristo, expressed hope that EU member states will greenlight the opening of accession talks. Kristo promised Bosnia will press on with reforms.
\n\u201cWhat we did so far was sufficient (for the recommendation), but we will keep on working,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is our obligation to keep on working.\u201d
\nThere is no guarantee that member states will endorse the recommendation as separatist Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who is pro-Russia, continues to undermine the presidency and other political functions in the country.
\nBosnia has been riven by ethnic divisions, even decades after the war that tore the country apart in the 1990s. In December, Dodik told The Associated Press that he intended to keep weakening the country to the point where it fell apart.
\nDodik welcomed the commission\u2019s recommendation but said \u201cit doesn\u2019t mean much\u201d since there is no exact date for accession attached.
\n\u201cThe European path is important for us because it represents a fulfilment of a big national goal \u2014 Serbs living in a single economic and political area without borders,\u201d Dodik said. He described Bosnia as a \u201csmall EU,\u201d which can function \u201cwhen no interest is excluded.\u201d
\n\u201cThat is when we have a positive result,\u201d Dodik said.
\nBosnia was granted candidate status in 2022. For candidates to join the EU, they have to go through a lengthy process to align their laws and standards with those of the bloc and show their institutions and economies meet democratic norms.
\nVon der Leyen said that Bosnia needs to do \u201cmore progress\u201d to join the EU, but insisted on the \u201cimpressive steps\u201d toward the 27-nation bloc that the country has already achieved. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS, 12 Mar: The European Union\u2019s executive arm will recommend that member countries open membership negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday, despite lingering ethnic divisions in the Western Balkan country. Bosnia-Herzegovina is among six nations from the region \u2014 the others are Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-236876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}