BiH to Face Poor Grades: Still 10 Years Away from EU Membership!

The European Commission for Enlargement is finalizing a new report on Bosnia and Herzegovina's progress towards EU membership, in which our country will once again receive poor grades, given that no progress has been made on key issues in the past year, the BH news agency Patria (NAP) has learned from sources in the European Union.

Annual progress reports are published in Brussels in the autumn, and given that it is an election year in BiH, most of the work on this year's report has been completed. Only general assessments of the election campaign and elections are awaited. The final publication of the report on BiH, as part of the EU's annual enlargement strategy, is expected in early November, as it was last year.

However, unlike all other countries in the process of approaching the Union, BiH has nothing to expect but criticism. The implementation of the Sejdić-Finci ruling and the establishment of a coordination mechanism for the EU are insurmountable obstacles for BiH political leaders for now.

The conditions for progress have not been met, and additional problems have emerged this year, including a dispute over the application of the Stabilization and Association Agreement to trade with Croatia. Because of this, the EU has threatened sanctions against BiH. In many other areas, there has been a regression, for example, in the implementation of anti-money laundering regulations, for which BiH has been threatened with international punitive measures. BiH is also moving away from the European Energy Community, and its foreign policy is not aligned with Brussels.

Sources from Brussels warn NAP that every poor report, despite Brussels' desire for the Union to expand to the entire Western Balkans, postpones our country's entry date into the Union and slows down the process of adopting European standards.

- It is already clear that even in the best-case scenario, BiH will not join the EU by 2020, and as things stand, even 2024, as a target for BiH's entry into the EU, may be too ambitious. It is true that Brussels shows a desire to maintain and deepen relations with BiH, which is why the structured dialogue on justice is being expanded and stronger cooperation on economic reforms is being introduced, but BiH lacks reforms that would unblock the accession process to the Union. This means that despite stronger cooperation and alignment of regulations, your country is not gaining real benefits from approaching the Union, because the country is not making progress in its status - says Patria's source from Brussels.

This year's report will be the last in the mandate of the current Commissioner for Enlargement, Štefan Füle, as a new European Commission is expected, which has already announced a five-year pause for admitting new members.

However, this does not mean that the process of bringing countries closer will be halted, but it does mean that candidates and potential candidates will have to put in far more effort than BiH authorities have shown in the last six years. Otherwise, joining the EU will remain an unfulfilled dream, reports NAP.