EU leaders grant Bosnia bloc candidate status; Türkiye welcomes decision

European Union leaders have agreed to make Bosnia and Herzegovina a formal candidate to join the bloc of 27 nations — a move hailed by Ankara which urged that negotiation processes must be fairly and determinedly held with other candidates, including Türkiye.

"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," European Council President Charles Michel said in a tweet on Thursday.

General affairs ministers of the EU countries had already agreed on the candidate status for Bosnia earlier this week.

It will be joining other EU candidates — Albania, Moldova, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine — to join the EU, which can take many years and involves complex negotiations on adjusting local laws to match those of the EU.

Kosovo formally applied to join the EU on Thursday.

Bosnia and Herzegovina applied to join the EU in 2016 but has been lagging with reforms set out as necessary to progress toward the EU over quarrels by its Serb, Croat and Bosniak leaders.

The decision to grant it the candidate status was prompted mainly because of a fear that instability created by the conflict in Ukraine may spread to the volatile Western Balkans region.

"With today's decision, we have shown that we understand the challenges facing Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entire Western Balkans," said Slovenia PM Robert Golob who has strongly lobbied for the decision.

"The granting of candidate status is a much-needed signal to third countries, whose malign influence has increased over the years, that we will not allow their negative policies and narratives to prevail in the Western Balkans," Golob said.

Türkiye congratulates Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina's international peace envoy Christian Schmidt said granting the candidate status was "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" for the Balkan country and urged political leaders to prove they can move Bosnia beyond political and economic dysfunction.

Denis Becirevic, a Bosniak member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, said the decision was encouraging.

"(Granting) of a candidate status is a step forward towards the process of the European integration, though a lot of job remains until the opening of negotiations on EU membership for our state," Becirevic said in a statement.

Congratulating Bosnia and Herzegovina, Türkiye said it takes many steps towards the peace and prosperity of the Balkans, of which they are a part, both at the bilateral and international level, and supports all efforts in this direction.

Within this framework, Türkiye has supported the integration of the Balkan countries with the EU and the Euro-Atlantic institutions from the very beginning, it said in a statement on Thursday.

"We believe that the conditions specified in the decision will be fulfilled by Bosnia and Herzegovina as soon as possible, and we expect the EU to constructively support the process."

Türkiye, however, emphasised the importance of conducting the negotiation processes of EU candidate countries, including Türkiye, in a fair and determined manner, "without being politicised by myopic national motives."