Austria, Croatia and Slovenia are pushing to open accession talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina this year, arguing that the move would be of geopolitical importance to stabilise the region, the foreign ministers of the three states wrote in an op-ed that was published by multiple Balkan media and seen by Euractiv.
The EU granted Bosnia and Herzegovina the status of a formal candidate country in December 2022. However, the country must fulfil 14 key priorities that the European Commission previously defined to open accession negotiations. However, despite these requirements, the three countries are already pushing to open the accession negotiations this year.
“The European Union must open the EU accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina by the end of this year,” the op-ed reads.
They also stressed that enlargement would be “the EU’s most powerful stabilisation instrument” and welcomed the “more geostrategic and less bureaucratic perspective” on EU enlargement of the EU Commission.
Austria and Slovenia have been long-standing advocates of EU accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina and were among the first ones to call to grant the country official candidate status.
However, one of the main stumbling blocks for opening accession talks is the Republika Srpska—one of the two entities that form the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The situation in the Republika Srpska was already one of the main concerns of the European Commission in their country report in 2022, as its leader, Milorad Dodik, was openly advocating for secession.
However, since then, the situation has considerably worsened, with the Serb leader Dodik threatening to arrest the UN-appointed high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, if he entered Republika Srpska.
In July, the European Commission also warned the defiant region to stop undermining the country’s constitutional order and threatened “serious consequences” if the situation were to continue. Later this October, the Commission will publish its 2023 country report, outlining Bosnia and Herzegovina’s progress in implementing the EU’s priorities.
While Austria, Slovenia and Croatia are still pushing to open negotiations fast, they also said that the new, more strategic approach “will not lower enlargement standards” and that “full reform implementation remains essential.”
Earlier this month, Austria pitched the idea of putting a system of “gradual integration” into the EU prior to formal accession to the bloc to tie them closer to the EU and prevent Russia from destabilising the region.
(Oliver Noyan | Euractiv.de)
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