Bosnia and Herzegovina does not fulfill the criteria for membership in the EU; the diplomats in Brussels said on Wednesday after Sarajevo announced the submission of application for membership next month.
B&H will submit an application for membership in the EU on February 15, after being invited by the Netherlands which currently chairs the European Union.
Politically decentralized along the ethnic lines of disengagement after the war in the nineties when around 100,000 people were killed and still economically impoverished, B&H lags behind its Balkans neighbors on the path of accession to the EU.
However, Sarajevo is determined to submit the official request on February 15, one day prior to the meeting of European ministers in charge of enlargement negotiations and relations issues. Unanimous support is needed for the request to be accepted.
Furthermore, Brussels demands that B&H, with a very complex matrix of authority in various fields, establishes one efficient body for reaching decisions in negotiations with the EU. The Union also demands from B&H to adapt the Stabilization and Accession Agreement from 2008 due to changes which emerged after the accession of Croatia to the EU in 2013.
So far, B&H had an activated SAA with the EU and the submission of application for membership is conditioned by the agreement on coordination mechanism and the adjustment of the SAA in the part which refers to traditional trade, primarily related to Croatia.
(Source: novovrijeme.ba)
