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Bosnian flag next to EU flags: Officially candidate country
Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert / AP
The European Union has officially accepted the Balkan country Bosnia-Herzegovina as a candidate for accession.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the other heads of state and government of the EU states made a corresponding decision at a summit meeting in Brussels, as confirmed by an EU official and several diplomats.
The Europe Ministers of the EU countries had already made a corresponding recommendation.
The reason was also the concern that Bosnia-Herzegovina could otherwise orient itself more towards Russia or China.
As early as June, the EU states had officially nominated Ukraine and Moldova as candidates for EU membership following a recommendation from the Commission.
However, accession negotiations are only to begin once the reform requirements have been met.
This procedure should now also apply to the Balkan country of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which has around 3.3 million inhabitants.
In the course of the decision for Ukraine and Moldova, EU states such as Austria in particular had pressed for Bosnia-Herzegovina to follow this path as well.
The country was given the prospect of joining the EU in 2003 and officially submitted an application for membership in 2016.
In 2019, however, it was decided that the country should only be granted candidate status once it had fulfilled 14 reform requirements.
The EU Commission recently emphasized that it is still crucial for the start of accession negotiations that the conditions are met.
Kosovo not a candidate country
Of the six Western Balkan countries, only the Republic of Kosovo is now not a candidate for accession.
However, the country officially applied for membership of the European Union this week.
For the youngest state in Europe, it was a rather symbolic act: EU membership is currently not within reach for the country, which has been independent since 2008.
The main obstacle to EU rapprochement is that five EU countries - Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus - do not recognize Kosovo.
The country, which is now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, used to belong to Yugoslavia or Serbia.
After repression by the Serbian security forces against the Albanian civilian population, NATO bombed targets in what was then the rest of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) in spring 1999.
The Serbian security forces and state organs left Kosovo.
The UN mission UNMIK took over the administration and the creation of Kosovar institutions.
In February 2008, the Kosovan parliament declared independence.
More than 100 countries, including Germany, but not Russia, China, Serbia and the five EU countries recognized the new state.
To this day, Serbia has not renounced its claim to the territory of Kosovo.
At the same time, it repeatedly stirs up tensions in the northern part of the country, which is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Serbs.
ptz/dpa