Senior officials of five EU countries called on the BiH authorities on Wednesday to act responsibly and take advantage of the current opportunity so that the country, through the implementation of reforms, could create conditions for the start of EU entry negotiations by the end of the year.

A delegation of member states of the General Affairs Council of the European Union arrived in BiH at the initiative of Andreja Metelko-Zgombic, State Secretary at the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. The delegation includes Bulgarian Assistant Foreign Minister Irena Dimitrova, the head of the Hungarian Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Judit Varga, Undersecretary of State at the Office of the Prime Minister of Poland, Karolina Rudzinska, and Daniela Gitman, State Secretary at the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The visit of the officials who play a key role in the preparations of heads of state or government for decision-making in the Council of the EU comes at a time when BiH is expected to quickly pass reform laws that would enable the opening of negotiations on accession to the European Union after the country was given candidate status at the end of 2022.

Five such laws have been adopted in the BiH parliament so far, but that process is now blocked because the authorities of the Republika Srpska entity make everything conditional on the adoption of a new law on the BiH Constitutional Court and the departure of its foreign judges, while the parties of the Bosniak-civic bloc within the ruling coalition refuse that ultimatum.

After separate meetings with the Chairwoman of the BiH Council of Ministers, Borjana Krišto, Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic and members of the European Integration Committee of the State Parliament, Metelko-Zgombic told reporters that Croatia remains a strong supporter of BiH's European prospects.

“We came to provide full support to Bosnia and Herzegovina on its journey to the EU, knowing how important this fall is because the European Commission is finalising the report on the progress of the candidate countries,” said the Croatian State Secretary.

She assessed that Bosnia and Herzegovina had made great progress in nine months, although it was a big challenge for the country after the elections in October 2022.

She said that the adoption of five reform laws, especially the one on the Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, is encouraging because it strengthens the integrity of the judiciary. She recalled that Croatia, together with six other EU members, expressed its support for Bosnia and Herzegovina in a special letter to Josep Borell and strongly advocated that Bosnia and Herzegovina should receive a decision from the Council of the EU on the opening of negotiations already in December this year.

Daniela Gitman of Romania sent a similar message, saying that her country also wants to see BiH progress as quickly as possible and also hopes for a decision on the opening of negotiations by the end of December.

She emphasised that the EU, in light of the brutal Russian aggression against Ukraine, needs a unique and strong response to that challenge, and that enlargement is one of the key elements of that strategy.

In addition to meeting with BiH officials, during the day the members of the delegation also met behind closed doors with the High Representative for BiH, Christian Schmidt, and the head of the EU Delegation in BiH, Johann Sattler.

BiH Foreign Minister Konakovic said earlier in the day that he considers the initiative to allow his country to start membership negotiations as soon as possible very important, pointing out that this would be the best answer to Russia's blocking the country's European path.