Thursday the European Council, the body that brings together the heads of state and government of the European Union, He has decided to assign Bosnia-Herzegovina the official status of candidate country to join the European Union: Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, announced this in a tweet.
Bosnia and Herzegovina was granted the status of candidate country today.
A strong signal to the people, but also a clear expectation for the new authorities to deliver on reforms.
The future of the Western Balkans is in the #EU
Congratulations!#EUCO pic.twitter.com/1TUWlGlNPu
— Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) December 15, 2022
The assignment of candidate status to join the Union to Bosnia-Herzegovina is an important decision, which confirms the drive towards enlargement of the Union already seen with the assignment of the same status to Ukraine and Moldova. For now, however, the decision has above all a symbolic value: to enter the Union, the government of the candidate country needs to approve very complex economic and institutional reforms to adapt its national laws to the standards required by the Union, and it is a process that requires many years. Bosnia and Herzegovina will therefore join the other countries currently candidates for entry into the Union: Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
Bosnia-Herzegovina has been a federal parliamentary republic since 1995 and had applied for entry into the Union in 2016. Last October, the European Commission had recommended the assignment of candidate status: the European Council’s decision will now have to be formalized by the Council of the European Union, the body made up of the governments of the member countries which holds the legislative power of the European Union together with the Parliament.
