Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia are seeking Bosnia and Herzegovina’s admission to the European Union. After the annual regular meeting of the Danube countries, held in Brdo near Kranj, Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon announced their desire for Brussels to start talks with BiH in the next two months.
Bosnia and Herzegovina received the status of a candidate for membership in December 2022, but negotiations have not yet started. Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia are pro EU enlargement and believe that now is the political moment for the EU to move towards a new enlargement. However, it is a two-way street, and both the EU and the candidate countries must be ready. Austrian Foreign Minister Aleksander Schallenberg stated that Slovenia and Croatia are „good friends of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, but they are not the only ones. Some are also advocating the opening of accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova by the end of the year, seeking an accelerated procedure for those two countries. BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković met with the ministers of Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro, as well as lower-ranking officials of other Danube countries. The decision to open negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina is of a political nature, as it would be a strong political message to the European forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and possibly a slap in the face to those pro-Russian and pro-Easterners who are not happy about the rapid progress.
“Our position is clear, we don’t want to have two classes of candidate countries. It would be a mistake to consider some more privileged than others,” said Schallnberg.
“We have a common goal that talks between the EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding accession start by the end of this year. We are working hard on that,” said Fajon.
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Accession talks Requested for Bosnia and Herzegovina to the EU
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