Sarajevo works on approving key reforms to join EU as deadline approaches

The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina unanimously adopted and sent to parliament the draft law on the prevention of conflicts of interest in the state institutions, one of the key reform laws the EU insists on so the European Council can decide on opening accession negotiations by the end of this month, they announced on Wednesday.

The Council of Ministers sent the legal proposal to the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia under an urgent procedure.

At the end of 2022, Bosnia received candidate status for EU membership. Though they hoped negotiations would begin by the end of 2023, this did not happen. The European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, while Bosnia was put “on hold” and given a three-month deadline in which it must fulfil conditions set by the EU.

According to conversations at the EPP congress in Bucharest on Thursday, the EU Commission is likely to make a recommendation on Bosnia’s accession next week.

Bosnia has so far fulfilled only one of several conditions for opening negotiations: a law against money laundering and financing terrorism, which the state parliament adopted in mid-February.

Now, the law on preventing conflicts of interest should also finally be adopted.

However, adopting two other important laws – on courts and amendments to the Election Law – is still in limbo. These laws are stuck in the labyrinth of Bosnia’s complex lawmaking process, in which representatives of both entities (the Croat-Bosniak Federation and Republika Srpska) and all three constituent peoples (Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs) can veto the adoption of any decision.

Sarajevo was first visited in mid-January by the “EU Trio,” which included the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

This week, the foreign ministers of Italy (Antonio Tajani), Austria (Alexander Schallenberg), and Germany (Annalena Baerbock) visited Sarajevo. All of them have the same goal — to encourage the authorities in Bosnia to finally meet the conditions for the opening of accession negotiations.

If Bosnia misses the current opportunity to start negotiations, the EU has already made it clear that it is unlikely to get another one this year.

(Adriano Milovan | Euractiv.hr)