Croatian MEP awaits opening of accession negotiations with Bosnia

Croatian MEP Željana Zovko, who was Bosnia’s ambassador to Italy, France, and Spain, believes that the European Council will make a positive decision on Bosnia’s desire to join the EU, he told Euractiv ahead of the European Council’s meeting next week.

The likely opening of accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of Croatia’s ‘greatest foreign policy achievements’ in this mandate, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday, as reported by Hina.

He emphasised that this decision “is important for the whole of Bosnia and for all three constituent nations, and especially for the Croats who have always most strongly advocated the European path of Bosnia.”

But while the EU Commission’s recommendation to open negotiations with Bosnia, announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the EU Parliament on Tuesday, is certainly a big step forward for Sarajevo, the recommendation itself does not mean that Bosnia will automatically start accession talks.

The European Council, meeting in Brussels on 21 and 22 March, will have to decide unanimously.

“I believe that the European Council will open accession negotiations with Bosnia at its meeting next week,” Zovko told Euractiv, saying that Plenković and von der Leyen played a key role in the whole story of Bosnia’s European path.

Zovko said that she was satisfied with and welcomed the European Commission’s decision to recommend the opening of negotiations with Bosnia. She believes that the European Commission showed that it “recognised a key moment for peace and stability in Bosnia, as well as for its future.”

The Commission also recognised, she added, the reform measures undertaken in a relatively short time by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia, the country’s central government, headed by Borjana Krišto (HDZ/EPP).

Zovko also believes that geopolitical factors are an important link in the European Commission’s decision to recommend the opening of negotiations with Bosnia. Recently, in a statement to Euractiv, she warned that a possible decision not to open negotiations would lead to the strengthening of the interests of Russia, China, Turkey, and other countries in Bosnia.

(Adriano Milovan | Euractiv.hr)