Brussels, 1 November 2023
The European Commission will announce this year’s enlargement package on Wednesday, 8 November. The package will be presented at the Foreign Affairs Committee by the Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Várhelyi, and an exchange of views on its content will be held as well.
Željana Zovko, Vice Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Vice Chair of the Delegation for Relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, called on the European Commission to recommend the opening of accession negotiations with the candidate countries in this year’s enlargement package, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina. “In the current geopolitical context, it is important to continue the dynamics of enlargement and to support the countries in our environment on their European path”, emphasized Zovko, adding that all the candidate countries have made significant progress in the reform agenda in such a short time and thus deserved an invitation to start accession negotiations on membership in the European Union. “For the Republic of Croatia, it is extremely important that Bosnia and Herzegovina receives an invitation to open accession negotiations together with Ukraine and Moldova, because this is primarily a question of the stability of the Western Balkans, as well as the security of Europe’s external borders,” emphasized Zovko.
Zovko also pointed out that the Council of Ministers,headed by the prime-minister Borjana Krišto, voted the budget and a set of European laws in a short period of time and has been actively working on the reform of the Electoral Law, which is crucial for the country’s progress towards the European Union. “With such tangible results, we must encourage Bosnia and Herzegovina and restore faith in its European future in order to avoid disappointment and saturation with the entire process in the country,” warned Zovko.
As a reminder, the European Commission publishes an enlargement package every year, which analyses the current efforts and gives its recommendations to the candidate and potential candidate countries for the steps they must take in order to progress on their European path. Besides, the Commission can in its opinion make recommendations to the Council on the opening of accession negotiations for enlargement in accordance with the results of reform efforts.