Heads of state or government of the European Union will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for a summit, with support to Ukraine in the face of Russia’s war of aggression, security and defence, enlargement, and migrations being some of the topics on their agenda.

EU leaders will discuss the EU enlargement policy, including the latest developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine and Moldova.

“At their meeting in December 2023, EU leaders gave the green light to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, once the countries had taken the relevant steps set out in the Commission’s enlargement report of 8 November 2023,” says the EU on its website.

“The leaders also expressed their readiness to open accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, when the necessary compliance with the membership criteria was achieved. To this end, they invited the Commission to report to the Council on progress at the latest in March 2024.”

Bosnia and Herzegovina applied for EU membership in February 2016 and was granted EU candidate status in December 2022.

Following the recommendations of 12 March 2024, the European Council has decided to open the accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, reads a draft of the conclusions that the Council is expected to adopt.

The European Council calls on the Council of the EU to adopt a negotiating framework after relevant steps are taken as proposed by the European Commission on 12 October 2022, according to the draft.

The eight steps which the European Commission defined in October 2022 for Bosnia and Herzegovina's progress on its European journey envisage strengthening the rule of law, combating corruption and organised crime, migration management, and fundamental rights.

According to those eight steps, BiH was expected to adopt a new law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, a law on BiH courts, and a conflict of interest law.

Also, BiH was expected to take resolute steps to strengthen the prevention of and the fight against corruption and organised crime, resolutely advance work on ensuring effective coordination at all levels of border management and migration management capacity as well as ensuring a functioning asylum system.

BiH must also ensure a ban on torture, notably by establishing a national prevention mechanism against torture and abuse.

It must guarantee the freedom of expression and of the media as well as the protection of journalists, notably by ensuring the appropriate judicial follow-up to cases of threats and violence against journalists and media workers.

BiH is expected to ensure a track record in the functioning at all levels of the coordination mechanism on EU matters, including by developing and adopting a national programme for the adoption of the EU acquis.