Heads of Cabinet of European Commissioners fail to agree on opening accession negotiations with BiH

(Patria) - The heads of cabinet of European Commissioners failed to reach an agreement and recommend the opening of accession negotiations in their progress report for BiH, Radio Free Europe (RFE) learns from reliable sources in the European Commission (EC).

A possible recommendation to open membership negotiations was a preliminary idea of some commissioners when the drafting of the report began.

However, as learned from reliable sources at the meeting, there was "strong resistance" to recommending the opening of this process for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The meeting ended without agreement, and the report for BiH is now "stuck," with the College of the European Commission, comprising all commissioners of this institution, set to decide on it tomorrow.

They are meeting to adopt the enlargement package, after which the document is published. It is customary for agreement to be reached at the level of heads of cabinet, and approval of the package in the College is a formal procedure.

However, at tomorrow's meeting, the discussion on BiH will continue, as the document has not been approved.

Namely, for two days, the heads of cabinet discussed the enlargement package, which also includes separate reports for each country seeking EU membership.

While a recommendation to open accession negotiations is almost certain for Ukraine and Moldova, as well as a recommendation for candidate status for Georgia, it was initially considered that a positive decision on BiH would also be a message from Brussels to the entire Western Balkan region.

However, as learned, a large number of commissioners believe that the content of the progress report for BiH "does not justify a recommendation to open accession negotiations."

If the recommendation to open negotiations between Brussels and Sarajevo is not included, this year's enlargement package will be positive only for the Eastern Partnership countries.

BiH received candidate status in December 2022, after some member states, on Slovenia's initiative, raised this issue in light of granting this status to Ukraine. In this process, BiH needs to fulfill eight conditions.

BiH did not even have a positive assessment from the EC when the opinion on the country's readiness to become a candidate country was drafted. At that time, the EC identified 14 criteria that the country needed to meet to be granted candidate status.

In the decision granting candidate status, these criteria remained valid for opening accession negotiations with BiH.

EC President Ursula von der Leyen stated in Sarajevo on November 1 that BiH must act united and continue working on fulfilling the 14 priorities in order to join the EU.