On the picture HE Ambassador Lidija Topić with European Council President Donald Tusk. Picture by EU
By Baron Henri Estramant.
Brussels, 15 February 2016: Bosnia and Herzegovina has formally applied to join the 28 member states European Union.
Bosnia’s move comes more than two decades after it emerged from a three-year conflict that cost about 100,000 lives, when Yugoslavia fragmented. Integration with Europe is seen as a way to help Bosnia’s economy and overcome its reputation for corruption that scares off investors.
Last March 2015, EU foreign ministers and Bosnia and Herzegovina signed a “Stabilisation and Association Agreement” that had been on hold since 2008, paving the way for the application.
Dragan Čović, chairman of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, submitted the application to Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, whose country currently holds the six-month EU rotating presidency. Tough the application has been submitted, it is sure that Bosnia and Herzegovina will not join the EU within the next few years. Moreover a new expansion cannot take place before 2019.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has a mission to the EU in Brussels led by HE Ambassador Lidija Topić, one to The Netherlands represented by HE Ambassador Ahmet Halilović in The Hague, and to Belgium and Luxembourg in Brussels with an incumbent Chargé d’Affaires, Minister Counsellor Nemin Mešinović.
For more information:
Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Belgium and Luxembourg: www.bhembassy.be/
Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Netherlands: http://eng.bhembassy.nl/naslovna.php
