A strong political signal and a clear time frame were sent to Bosnia and Herzegovina to open accession negotiations in March next year, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday.
“The European Council will open negotiations with BiH when it fulfills the criteria set for it, and we have now called on the European Commission to prepare a report on BiH’s progress in March with the aim of making a formal decision,” Plenković said, Hina writes.
The leaders of the member states decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, approved the candidate status for Georgia, and with Bosnia and Herzegovina, negotiations will be opened when the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is met.
Plenković says that this is an excellent incentive for the Council of Ministers, headed by chairperson Borjana Krišto, with whom he was in contact all day, to take several more important steps in the next two months in fulfilling the required criteria.
The leaders of the member states made the decision on the expansion unexpectedly quickly after the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave up his veto and left the hall while it was being decided.
Plenković said in his presentation at the meeting of the European Council that the attitude towards enlargement has fundamentally changed after the Russian aggression against Ukraine. At the same time, he mentioned that only 20 months ago, in March 2022, the EU leaders at the summit in Versailles could not agree on even a mild formulation about the European perspective of Ukraine, and today the European Council decided to open negotiations.
He said that due to Putin’s aggression, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia moved from the Eastern Partnership to the enlargement.
The EU leaders now have another important topic left, the revision of the seven-year budget, in which the biggest item is the aid package of 50 billion euros for Ukraine, of which 17 billion are grants, and 33 billion are soft loans.
The European Commission has proposed increasing the budget for the period until 2027 by 66 billion euros. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, cut the proposed amount to one third, to 22.5 billion euros.
Richer members advocate for as little fresh money as possible and that most new needs are covered by redistribution of existing funds, which is opposed by poorer countries who fear that they could be left without part of the funds intended for them.
Plenković said that the negotiations on this continue on Thursday evening and that the positions are getting closer.
“I think we are on the threshold of an agreement,” Plenković said.
