The European Commission was set to recommend formal membership talks with Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday, said Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU's executive branch.
The country has been an official membership candidate since 2022 but needed to implement a string of major reforms before opening accession negotiations with the 27-nation bloc.
Von der Leyen told the European Parliament that Bosnia-Herzegovina "is showing that it can deliver on its membership criteria and on its citizens' aspiration to be part of our family."
"This is the reason that we will decide to recommend to the Council to open accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina."
The war in Ukraine has reignited the EU's drive to expand in Central and Eastern Europe and the EU executive was to formally present its latest report on Bosnia-Herzegovina's progress later Tuesday.
While cautioning that "more progress is necessary to join our union," von der Leyen said, "Bosnia and Herzegovina has taken impressive steps towards us."
"More progress has been achieved in just over a year than in over a decade," von der Leyen told lawmakers in Strasbourg.
She said Bosnia-Herzegovina was now "fully aligned" with the EU's foreign and security policy, was improving its management of migration flows, and adopted laws to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
She welcomed its agreement to include in domestic criminal records the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
She also noted further steps toward dialogue and reconciliation in the wake of the country's 1992-1995 war, with the creation of a new peacebuilding committee.
"The message coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina is clear," said von der Leyen. "So our message must be clear too. The future of Bosnia and Herzegovina lies in our Union."
The commission recommendation comes ahead of a European Council meeting on March 21 and 22, which was seen as the last chance for Bosnia-Herzegovina to open membership negotiations before June's European elections.
All 27 EU member states will have to agree to the move before negotiations can be launched.
Starting the talks is just the beginning of a long process of reforms usually lasting years before a country finally joins the EU.
