Slovenian President Borut Pahor welcomed the decision of the European Commission to propose the granting of candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina, stating that this "marks the beginning of Bosnia and Herzegovina's European perspective" and that it is "of great importance for peace and stability in the Western Balkans."

In a statement from the office of the President of Slovenia, it is stated that this is an initiative that Pahor officially presented for the first time in a speech at this year's Munich Security Conference, on February 22, 2022. His initiative then caused many reactions because Pahor advocated that BiH be allocated the status and without any conditions, “which would be outside the established practice and until then unrecorded in history.”

“At the same time, President Pahor emphasized that it is not a matter of narrow administrative fulfilment of conditions in BiH, but primarily a geopolitical issue. His initiative was announced to the public before the Russian aggression against Ukraine, and then the argument of geopolitics prevailed, so the Council of Europe decided in June of this year to grant Ukraine such a status”, it is stated.

“Today's decision of the European Commission raises great hopes that Bosnia and Herzegovina will receive candidate status at the December meeting of the EU Council, which, according to the President of the Republic of Slovenia, is a turning point for two reasons: first, because this actually marks the beginning of BiH’s European perspective, and second, because it is of great importance for peace and stability in the Western Balkans”, said the statement from the President’s Office.