Fajon: Proposal on Bosnia’s EU candidate status gets strong support

Luxembourg – Slovenia’s proposal that the EU should grant Bosnia-Herzegovina EU candidate status as soon as possible received a great deal of support and, above all, a great deal of understanding at today’s meeting of EU foreign ministers, Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said after she outlined the proposal to her counterparts.

“I can say with a great deal of confidence that the Slovenian proposal has been met with a lot of support and, above all, a lot of understanding among my colleagues.

“Because everyone is aware that the Western Balkans has enlargement prospects and needs our political support and commitment,” she said after a session of the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg.

Some EU foreign ministers met the proposal with approval while it took others by surprise, she said adding that “it’s important to send a political signal that Slovenia is promoting the enlargement process in the region and that it will not forget these countries”.

According to Fajon, the proposal is for Bosnia to receive candidate status under similar conditions as Ukraine. This means getting candidate status as soon as possible, but before accession talks could start, the country would have to fulfil all the necessary conditions.

Given the version of the proposal obtained by the STA, Bosnia would be granted candidate status at the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.

Before starting the accession talks, it would have to adopt the laws set out in the political agreement reached by Bosnian political parties at talks in Brussels a week ago.

These are the law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, the law on courts, the law on prevention of conflict of interest and the law on public procurement.

At the council session, Fajon underlined the role of enlargement to the Western Balkans while stressing that Slovenia strongly supports granting Ukraine the status of EU candidate country and helping it so that the Russian aggression ends as soon as possible.

The minister also told the press that the discussion will continue, and that EU leaders will have some important steps to take at the EU summit this week.

She counts on the start of accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania, but at the same time hopes that Slovenia receives a strong understanding for the proposal to grant candidate status to Bosnia as soon as possible.

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