"The recommendation of the European Commission to grant candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina is a positive event. Despite the blockades and obstructions, progress has been made in the most difficult mandate," BiH Presidency Chairman Sefik Dzaferovic said in a statement for N1, on Wednesday.

“It’s particularly important that the Report recognizes that, in relation to Ukraine and other issues, BiH has aligned itself with the EU's foreign policy, which was an important factor in obtaining this recommendation,” Dzaferovic said.

BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik, on the other hand, see the recommendation as an “end of international interventionism in BiH”.

In his reaction published on the official Twitter account, Dodik noted that this was a long-awaited step, and then thanked Josep Borrell and Oliver Varhelyi for their understanding and effort shown during the process.

However, he lashed out at the Delegation of the European Union in BiH, saying that he could not address them with similar words.

“I believe that this is the end of international interventionism in Bosnia and Herzegovina and I believe that the candidate status is also linked with the abolition of the function of the High Representative”, Dodik concluded.

The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, presented the enlargement package together with individual annual reports for each country of the Western Balkans individually. Even though the report is not positive, Bosnia and Herzegovina received conditional candidate status.