Bosnia applies for EU membership

Bosnia is applying for membership of the European Union in the hope of catching up with its neighbours on the EU path.

Sarajevo said it will speed up the required reforms in expectation that the EU will grant the country candidate status in 2017.

President Dragan Covic submitted the application to Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Bert Koenders in Brussels on Monday.

Bosnia knocked on the door in 2008 when it signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU 13 years after the end of the bloody conflict that left the country ethnically divided.

Unsolved wartime quarrels hindered the necessary reforms and left the country lingering behind its Balkan neighbours.