At the meeting of the European Council in December, Slovenia will propose that the accession negotiations between the European Union and Bosnia and Herzegovina begin immediately or simultaneously with the negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, said Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob.
“In light of the war in Ukraine, the EU integration process must, first of all, be treated as a stabilization tool and an instrument for deterring the influence of foreign players who are interested in hindering BiH’s European integration,” Golob wrote in a letter to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
He reminded that last week the European Commission recommended the start of accession negotiations with BiH when it reaches a certain level of meeting the conditions for membership.
“The decision on the actual start of negotiations would be made on the basis of the report from Brussels, which will be presented no later than March 2024,” said Golob.
He called on the President of the European Council to consider supporting this proposal, the Slovenian news agency STA reports.
Bosnia and Herzegovina applied for EU membership in February 2016, and in December last year the leaders of the EU member states gave it the status of a candidate for membership.
Last week, in the annual report on enlargement, the European Commission recommended to the EU member states the immediate start of negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova and granting candidate status to Georgia.
Yesterday it was announced that the ministers of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the EU were offered a “non-paper” for the Western Balkans, which is supported by Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy and Slovakia.
