Bosnia to submit EU membership application next month

Bosnia will officially apply to join the European Union on 15 February, the country’s presidency said, marking a major milestone in the former Yugoslav republic’s integration with the European mainstream two decades after emerging from war.

Bosnia lags far behind its Balkan peers on the road to membership of the EU, with progress dogged by ethnic divisions after the 1992-95 war in which about 100,000 people died.

Years of tough negotiation and reform lie ahead, complicated by a highly decentralised and often unwieldy system of government bestowed by a 1995 peace deal that divided power along ethnic lines.

The country faces frequent threats of secession from ethnic Serbs, who are considering holding a referendum on the authority of Bosnia’s national court over their autonomous region.

Observers say Bosnia stands little chance of joining the EU before 2025.

“It is now quite definitive and clear that we have got the date by the EU chairman, the Netherlands, to submit the application on 15 February,” the Croat chairman of Bosnia’s three-person rotating presidency, Dragan Čović, told reporters.

“It is realistic that we get candidate status at the beginning of the next year,” he said. “I deeply believe this is a great chance for Bosnia-Herzegovina.”

Bosnia’s EU aspirations have been given impetus by a joint German and British initiative launched last year to encourage economic development and reform in exchange for EU funds and integration.

The initiative followed years of delayed reform and a dramatic bout of civil unrest in February 2014, fuelled by popular anger over political inertia, high unemployment and rampant corruption.

The European commission, the EU’s executive arm, has said it will support reforms in Bosnia to the tune of €1bn (£760m) over the next three years, and a further €500m for investment in infrastructure upgrades.