March 12 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said it recommended on Tuesday to open European Union accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina as the country has achieved the necessary level of compliance with the membership criteria.
The Commission also recommended that the European Council adopt the negotiating framework once Bosnia has taken further steps in line with the Commission's report, it said in a press release.
"Since we granted candidate status, Bosnia and Herzegovina has taken impressive steps forward. More progress has been achieved in just over a year than in a whole decade," the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said. "Of course, more progress is necessary to join the Union but the country is showing that it can deliver on its membership criteria and on its citizens aspirations to be part of our family."
Bosnia and Herzegovina has taken significant steps to improve the judiciary and prosecutorial system, the fight against corruption, organised crime and terrorism and to improve migration management, with the approval of a mandate to negotiate a Frontex status agreement, the Commission noted.
Bosnia submitted its application for EU membership in February 2016 and was awarded EU candidate status in December 2022.