Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia's prime minister says his country has fulfilled the preconditions for applying for EU membership and will submit its request to Brussels on Monday.
After years of lingering behind its neighbors on the path to EU membership, Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic said Wednesday his government is now ready to move forward with its aspirations to join the 28-nation bloc.
Zvizdic said he was optimistic the EU will grant Bosnia candidate status in 2017.
However, hours after Zvizdic announced that the last two preconditions for the application had been fulfilled, the government of the Bosnian Serb region complained it had not been consulted before the national government adopted a coordination mechanism that should help harmonize the country's laws, standards and policies with those of the EU.
Since the 1992-95 war, Bosnia has been divided in two semi-autonomous regions — one for the Serbs, the other shared by Bosniaks and Croats. They are linked by a joint government, parliament and presidency.
For years the two regions had opposite views of the future of the country: the Serbs pushed for greater autonomy or even secession, while the other two saw Bosnia in the EU as a whole.
But two years ago Bosnian Serb voters split between a party that supports secession and an alliance that supports EU reforms. Members of that alliance occupy positions in the national government and members of the secessionist party rule the Serb region. Serbs in the national government voted for the reforms while those running the region oppose some of them.
Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic — a member of the party that does not support all the reforms — said in a statement the national government only informed her government about the mechanism rather than of consulting it. She accused the Serb representatives in the national government of undermining Serb autonomy within Bosnia.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
