A Growing Union: EU Leaders Move Ahead With Accession Talks
As membership process for Bosnia and Herzegovina gains momentum, Moldovan parliament approves bid to join bloc.
As membership process for Bosnia and Herzegovina gains momentum, Moldovan parliament approves bid to join bloc.
“There can be no sovereignty if you’re a colony,” Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said, calling Bosnia’s western supervision illegitimate and announcing a possible referendum on the region’s future, which could rip the country apart.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, if given the official go-ahead, will join a league of EU hopefuls which presently includes the likes of Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Moldova, Ukraine, and Turkey.
The public recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an official candidate for EU membership was accompanied by a list of reforms deemed necessary by the European Commission to allow further negotiations.
Election results followed the same trend seen over the past 25 years of ethnocentric politics, in sync with the country’s enduring ethnic rifts. But a contested result has led to protests.
Foreign minister Bisera Turkovic said that the Ukraine war “is causing fear and concern in our region that this might now be the beginning of a larger trend in Eastern Europe,” and that “the Balkans is Europe’s Achilles heel.”
As the Russia-NATO standoff preoccupied Western leaders in late 2021, the worrying development did not receive the care it merited. At a meeting of EU foreign ministers last Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell at last presented their response.
Bosnia is not the way it is because of the Dayton system; it is the way it is because of the divided nature of Bosnian society.
To submit a pitch for consideration:
submissions@
For subscription inquiries:
subscriptions@