Bosnia and Herzegovina may receive EU candidate status on December 15
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EU leaders may grant official bloc candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina at a summit in Brussels on December 15, reported Bloomberg agency, citing sources.
Bosnia and Herzegovina applied for EU membership on February 16, 2022. On October 12, the European Commission recommended that the EU member states grant candidate status to the country on the condition “that a series of steps be taken to strengthen democracy, the functioning of state institutions, the rule of law, and strengthen the fight against corruption and organized crime, guaranteeing freedom of the media and managing migration in the country.” As Bloomberg explained, Bosnia and Herzegovina is still “struggling with the aftermath of the Balkan wars of the 1990s.”
According to Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, it is only a matter of time before the decision on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s accession to the EU will be made.
In June, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on granting Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidates for EU membership as soon as possible. In November, EU Ambassador to Georgia Pavel Gerchinsky informedthat a decision on granting Georgia the status of a candidate for EU membership will be made before the end of 2023.
According to the rules, the procedure for countries to join the EU involves the passage of several main stages, among which are the filing of an application, obtaining candidate status, negotiations, ratification and integration. At the same time, formally, the status of a candidate does not mean the automatic start of negotiations on joining the EU.
The terms of accession to the EU are always different for each country. Austria, Finland and Sweden managed to complete this procedure the fastest, in less than two years. Croatia has been the longest in this process: it was admitted to the EU in 2013, eight years after the start of membership negotiations and 10 years after the application was submitted.
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