The President of the Republic of Serbian Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Milorad Dodik, suggested that BiH apply for membership in the BRICS due to difficulties with joining the EU, which he announced on social networks.
Lake Bled in Slovenia hosts an annual strategic forum with the participation of the leadership of the countries of the Western Balkans and the EU. The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, criticized the slowness of the European Union in accepting new members, in particular, the Balkan states, called for setting an appropriate schedule and being ready for a new wave of enlargement in 2030. BiH is represented at the forum by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Government) Boryana Krishto.
«The EU has an alternative. Taking into account the fact that new and unclear conditions for admission to the EU are always put forward from Brussels, I think that BiH should apply for membership in the BRICS. I am sure that it would be accepted earlier than in the EU. In the coming In the next few days, representatives of the structures of the RS will send a proposal to the authorities of BiH to consider this initiative,» Dodik wrote on the X social network (formerly Twitter).
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Monday that she was not sure if her country would achieve full EU membership in 2030, as expected by Brussels. She noted that she did not want to sound like a Euroskeptic and a pessimist, but in the past two years, apart from obtaining candidate status for Bosnia and Herzegovina, the countries of the region have not come close to EU membership.
Turkey has been an EU candidate since 1999, North Macedonia since 2005, Montenegro since 2010, and Serbia since 2012. Croatia is the latest to join the EU in 2013, a process that took ten years.
On June 23, 2022, at the summit in Brussels, the heads of state and government of the European Union approved granting Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidates for joining the union. The European Commission, in its recommendations to grant Ukraine the status of an EU candidate, set seven conditions.
It is expected that the issue of EU enlargement will be discussed at the autumn EU summit.