The European Union agrees to grant Bosnia and Herzegovina the status of a candidate country for membership

European ministers of the European Union agreed to grant Bosnia and Herzegovina the status of a candidate country to join the union, in a step that is expected to be officially approved by the union during Thursday's summit. This official endorsement represents the first stage in a long accession process for this Balkan country.

European affairs ministers in the European Union agreed, on Tuesday, to grant Bosnia and Herzegovina the status of a candidate country to join the union, in a step that is expected to be formally approved by the EU leaders during Thursday's summit, diplomatic sources told AFP.

This official endorsement represents the first stage in a long accession process for this Balkan country, and it comes a week after a summit in Tirana during which the European Union reaffirmed its commitment to enlargement in favor of the Western Balkans.

In October, the European Commission recommended that member states grant this status to a country of 3.5 million people that suffers from poverty, political instability and secessionist threats.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stressed the need for "positive impetus", noting that the war in Ukraine gave "a new geopolitical meaning" to the bloc's enlargement, and what he described as a "long-term investment in peace, prosperity and stability for our continent".

For his part, Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi called on Bosnia and Herzegovina's leaders to "make the most of this historic opportunity and implement the actions contained in the Commission's recommendation" that identified 14 key reform priorities to start accession negotiations.

The political system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is complex, inherited from the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the sectarian war in which 100,000 people were killed between 1992 and 1995.