Expecting that Bosnia could secure EU candidate status by the end of this year or spring of 2021 is "unrealistic" as the country can hardly meet any criteria for it to happen with its current political leaders, sociology professor Slavo Kukic told N1 on Tuesday.

The three members of Bosnia’s Presidency, Bosniak Sefik Dzaferovic, Bosnian Serb Milorad Dodik and Bosnian Croat Zeljko Komsic, are on Tuesday travelling to Brussels to talk to EU officials about Bosnia’s path toward EU candidate status and the priorities the European Commission put forward for the country to tackle in order to make it happen.

Dzaferovic said that it would be realistic for Bosnia to become an EU candidate country by the end of this year or the spring of the next – which Kukic said was unrealistic.

According to the professor, the upcoming visit of Bosnia’s Presidency members to Brussels is nothing more than a tourist trip of people who are only trying to stay in power.

Dodik, Dzaferovic and Komsic do not often have a chance to travel abroad due to the way they function politically, he said.

“This is done by people who push the same cart and work as a team for the good of their country, and this Presidency does not want any of that. Their departure to Brussels will mean nothing more than a tourist trip,” Kukic said, adding that the Presidency members will each tell the public completely different information about the meeting although they should be speaking with one voice.

He said he does not rule out that there will be talk about Dodik’s demand to relocate Bosnia’s Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and that the Bosnian Serb leader will say that he will not follow the EU’s foreign policy or UN resolutions.

“And what can we then expect from Brussels? Nothing,” Kukic said.

“They are not interested in Bosnia's future or Bosnia as part of a large European family. They are only interested in extending their own rule, which often excludes Bosnia from the EU,” added.

The professor said that Dodik “often talks about Eurasian integrations and thus carries out the order he received from Moscow,” while the leader of the main Bosnian Croat party in the country, Dragan Covic, is talking about EU integrations more and more often but is “only presenting himself as a European player.”

“It is simply unrealistic for this environment to meet any criteria for a further step into EU society for the next 10 years,” he added.