Bosnia’s House of Peoples unanimously adopted on Thursday the decision to ask the European Union to grant BiH candidate status but refused to consider discussing bills on amendments to the law on conflict of interest and on the country's top judicial institutions under an urgent procedure.

The House of Peoples instructed the Council of Ministers to send a request for the country’s candidate status to EU bodies. Although the decision was unanimous, two delegates had complaints.

One of them was Zlatko Miletic, who said it was “hypocritical” to ask the EU to accept BiH’s request when the country was not able to adopt laws necessary for fulfilling the 14 priorities the EU defined for the country in order to achieve that goal.

The House of Peoples did not decide to discuss the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Prevention of Conflicts of Interest in an urgent and shortened procedure as there was no general majority for it. The bill will be discussed under the regular procedure.

This was also the case for the Bill on Amendments to the Law on the HJPC, but due to a lack of a majority of delegates from one of Bosnia’s two semi-autonomous entities.

These two laws are clearly defined among the 14 priorities the European Commission insists on regarding BiH’s path towards membership.

The House of Peoples also did not support the proposal of Denis Becirovic, which would oblige the Council of Ministers of BiH to follow the EU policy regarding the measures against Russia due to the aggression on Ukraine. Only 6 representatives from Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) voted in favour.