European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the country's highest elected officials that she has high expectations of them and insist on the implementation of the reforms they pledged to carry out when in late 2022 Bosnia and Herzegovina was granted EU candidate status.

The letter comes as a response to a letter by Bosnia Presidency member Denis Becirovic and it was published by Fena news agency on Tuesday.

Von der Leyen recalled that implementing reform priorities defined back in 2019 remains a task the EC insists and will keep insisting on.

The EC will become involved in the political dialogue with the new authorities on a framework for a high-level political forum to oversee the implementation of 14 key priorities and report on further progress, the EC president said in her letter.

She stressed that the country has an opportunity to turn a new page and speed up the work on its EU agenda. Also, the EU official said, the candidate status is a clear message to citizens that BiH is a part of the European community. But, she added. this comes with high expectations.

The EU path is open and requires from the country to carry out the EU-oriented reforms.

Von der Leyen told Becirovic that she counts on full cooperation by the BiH Presidency but that primary responsibility lies with the BiH Council of Ministers as the body in charge of taking action to enable the necessary reforms.

Von der Leyen noted that the EU appreciates BiH's joining in the condemnation of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and counts on Sarajevo to continue with such an approach.

Alignment of BiH's foreign policy with that of the EU is a precondition for further progress towards EU membership but it is openly obstructed by the authorities of the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, whose representatives in state-level authorities refuse to support BiH's joining any sanctions against Russia.

The entity's president, Milorad Dodik, does not hide that he has close ties with Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin.

In the conclusion, Von der Leyen reiterated EU's full support to Bosnia's EU path.

“You can be sure in EU's full and unwavering commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a single, united and sovereign state to achieve its goal of becoming a member state of the European Union,” she underlined.