Austria insists on accelerating the EU accession process of the Western Balkan states, in particular Bosnia and Herzegovina, to ensure the region’s stability and protection against foreign influences, while Brussels focuses on Ukraine’s EU candidacy.
While the European Commission recommended opening accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova in November, it only recommended this for Bosnia and Herzegovina on the condition that the country first reaches the required compliance. However, Austria is working to accelerate accession negotiations with the Western Balkan countries and to open accession negotiations with Bosnia as quickly as possible.
“Accelerating accession negotiations with the Western Balkan countries is a clear priority for me before talking about other possible accessions,” Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner said in a statement during a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Europe “must not lose sight” of its “immediate neighborhood in the midst of all the crises in the world,” Tanner also stressed.
“The Western Balkans, and in particular Bosnia and Herzegovina, are an important partner for Austria when it comes to the further development of stability, regional cooperation and European integration in this region,” she added.
Next week, EU leaders will meet in Brussels to discuss opening accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. In a recent interview with the Financial TimesAustrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg has already stressed that negotiations with Bosnia should be opened as quickly as possible and that this issue would also be on the agenda of the next meeting of the European Council.
“There will be a very lively debate and we want the signals to be equal in both directions for geostrategic reasons,” he said. This decision would be important in countering Russian influence in the region.
The EU granted Bosnia and Herzegovina official candidate country status in December 2022. In October, the foreign ministers of Austria, Slovenia and Croatia published an op-ed in which they already pushed for a rapid opening of accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, arguing that this decision would have geopolitical importance.
(Olivier Noyan | Euractiv.de)