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EU membership is 'guarantee of stability' in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia is on the cusp of EU accession as next month, voters can unlock development, infrastructure improvements, and lasting security for all, country's high representative has said.

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High Representative Christian Schmid says citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are ready for the European Union. / Photo: Reuters Archive

Membership in the European Union will provide an additional guarantee of stability and security for Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens, High Representative Christian Schmidt has said.

''The citizens of this country have never been this close to integrating into the EU. We have the chance to be even closer to this goal next month. Membership will provide great support to Bosnia and Herzegovina in development and infrastructure projects. It will be an additional guarantee of stability and security for its citizens,'' Schmidt said after a session of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) in the capital Sarajevo on Wednesday.

Bosnia and Herzegovina gained EU candidacy status on December 15, 2022.

According to Schmidt, Bosnia and Herzegovina is at a turning point.

"The international community is concerned that there is currently no significant progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its citizens are ready for the EU, but unfortunately, some politicians give the impression that they have not reached this stage. We must take responsibility for every aspect of the country's development. Thoughtless, offensive rhetoric and false claims must be stopped,'' said Schmidt.

Bosnia gets 'candidate status' to join the European Union

Ethnically divided

Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb leader known for his controversial statements against the country's constitution as well as fanning sentiments for his region's separation from the federation, reiterated on Wednesday that he does not accept the legality of Bosnia's High Representative, who oversees the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the country's bloody civil war in the 1990s.

Bosnian Serbs say they do not recognise Schmidt as Bosnia’s international high representative because he was not endorsed by the UN Security Council.

The post of the international envoy was drawn up in the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended Bosnia’s devastating war to oversee peace in the Balkan country, which was split into two autonomous regions – the Serb Republic and a federation dominated by ethnic Bosniaks and Croats.