Croatian PM Andrej Plenkovic, Dutch PM Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Sarajevo in the next few weeks to encourage Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities to take additional steps so that the EU can launch accession negotiations with the country in March.

“We will travel to Sarajevo together with the EC President and the Dutch Prime Minister to encourage the local authorities to make the final efforts that remain to be made before a decision on the opening of talks can be made,” Plenkovic said after a summit of EU leaders in Brussels.

EU leaders on Thursday decided to open accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova, entrusting the European Commission to make a new progress report for BiH in March so that a decision could be made at a summit then to open accession talks with Bosnia.

Plenkovic said the launching of accession talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina was in Croatia's strategic interest and “the interest of all of us who have been working for years to help BiH catch up with the other countries.”