Eurasia Press & News
Bosnia will seek EU candidacy status in December despite an ongoing stalemate in forming a central government, a top official said on Wednesday.
“I think we will submit this year, namely in December, a candidacy to join the European Union,” Muslim member of Bosnia’s joint presidency Bakir Izetbegovic told National radio after a conference on the Balkans held in Brussels.
Izetbegovic did not say whether the candidacy bid would be submitted before the December 9 summit of EU top leaders in Brussels.
In the European Commission’s annual report on countries aiming to join the EU, presented in October, Bosnia was chided for the yearlong political deadlock that has prevented work on reforms.
“We are far from reaching the stage of the (European) Council being in a position to consider a membership application of Bosnia,” the European Commission’s Pierre Mirel, in charge of the Western Balkans, had said at the time.
