Bosnia criticizes EU approach to Ukraine's accession process
Photo: Elmedin Konaković (GettyImages)
Bosnia and Herzegovina has described Ukraine's rapid progress toward EU membership as unfair and called on Brussels to apply the same criteria to all candidate countries, Aktuality reports.
According to Bosnia and Herzegovina's Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković, the current situation cannot be viewed as a purely merit-based approach because Ukraine continues to face Russia's full-scale aggression and does not control all of its territory.
"Therefore, I do not believe this is an approach based solely on merit, as the European Union claims. Of course, we understand why. Ukraine is facing brutal Russian aggression," Konaković said.
Comparison with Bosnia
Explaining his position, the minister compared the situation to Bosnia and Herzegovina's political system. He noted that representatives of Republika Srpska have the power to block decisions related to the country's European integration.
According to him, a similar situation would exist if representatives of Donbas in Ukraine's parliament had veto power and could block decisions needed to move the country closer to the European Union.
"Imagine that representatives of Donbas in the Ukrainian parliament had veto powers similar to those held by representatives of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time, they would be fully controlled by Vladimir Putin and would block everything that could bring the country closer to the European Union," the foreign minister said.
Sarajevo's demands
Konasović stressed that he considers it wrong for Brussels to signal that Ukraine could move faster toward membership due to the war, while Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to wait despite its internal political obstacles.
"I do not think it is right to send the message that Ukraine will move faster because it is at war and does not control all of its territory, while we have to wait because the European Union insists on a merit-based approach, even though Putin, through his allies, blocks decision-making in parliament," the minister said.
He also referred to Moldova, noting that it faces its own difficult situation because of threats from Russia.
The foreign minister concluded by calling on the European Union to show leadership and accelerate the accession process for the Western Balkan countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As previously reported, Hungary has once again blocked the opening of new negotiating clusters in Ukraine's EU accession process. Budapest also proposed considering the applications of Ukraine and Moldova separately, but the initiative was not supported by the other EU member states.
