Accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union

Moldovan and Bosnian Foreign Affairs Minister Tudor Ulianovschi and Igor Crnadak signed a joint declaration on European integration and cooperation between the two countries on Tuesday in Chisinau.

The document says that Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina will support each other on their European path.

Denis Zvizdic, chairman of the Bosnia's Council of Ministers, has said that Bosnia has prepared 95 per cent of the answers for the EU questionnaire - but the remaining 5 per cent will be an obstacle to meeting the deadline of December 31.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn on Tuesday commemorated the 22nd anniversary of the massacre in Srebrenica and pointed to EU accession talks as the path toward reconciliation in the Balkans.

BELGRADE - The European Union's 28 member states accepted Bosnia and Herzegovina's membership application and ordered the Commission to prepare an assessment of the Balkan country's readiness to join the bloc, euractiv.com reports.

Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted its application for European Union (EU) membership on Monday.

The application comes after months of hard work by the leadership of the Balkan country and only twenty years after the destructive Yugoslav wars.

Bosnia-Herzegovina has submitted its application to be granted the status of candidate for EU membership.

Bosnian Presidency Chairman Dragan Covic filed the application in Brussels on Monday.

Bosnia on Feb. 15 formally submitted an application to join the EU, hoping to catch up with its Balkan neighbors after years lost following the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia.

"This is an important day for all us," the Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Dragan Covic, said on Monday after presenting the application for EU membership.

Bosnian farmers will now have to pay tarrifs if they want to export their produce to the EU market after January 1, after Brussels suspended a trade liberalisation deal.

"The European Parliament decided ... to suspend the trade preferences granted unilaterally by the EU to Bosnia and Herzegovina," Zora Stanic, the spokesperson of the EU delegation in Sarajevo, told BIRN on Tuesday.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn, the European Union Foreign Affairs Council and US Secretary of State, John Kerry were urged in an open letter signed by the prominent academics and political analysts on Thursday to take action to ensure progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina.