The European Union has agreed to implement a German-British plan to revive Bosnia-Herzegovina's bid to join the bloc. The plan depends on Bosnia’s successfully making a series of reforms to ensure good governance and the rule of law.
The initiative adopted Monday demands legal, social and economic reforms before any consideration of EU membership for the troubled Balkan country. The plan offers some EU money to Bosnia for making a written pledge to make the changes.
Following the British-German proposal last month EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini visited Sarajevo.
"This could be a turning point in Bosnia-Herzegovina's path towards the European Union," Mogherini told a news conference.
Bosnia is bottom of the pack of Western Balkan states seeking EU membership, hampered by an unwieldy system of ethnic power-sharing set out in the Dayton peace accords which ended the 1992-95 war and divided the former Yugoslav republic into two autonomous regions.
A majority of the members in Bosnia's lower house of parliament expressed support for the German-British initiative last week, but Bosnia has yet to form a national government since an October election.
Analysts say Bosnia has struggled for years with economic stagnation, social unrest, official corruption and a staggering unemployment rate of 44 percent.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters.
