Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) Presidency Dragan Covic (R) and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker attend a joint press conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Feb. 28, 2018. Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) Presidency Dragan Covic and Chairman of BiH Council of Ministers Denis Zvizdic have officially handed the answered EU accession questionnaire to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Haris Memija)
SARAJEVO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) Presidency Dragan Covic and Chairman of BiH Council of Ministers Denis Zvizdic have officially handed the answered EU accession questionnaire to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker here on Wednesday.
The act of handing the questionnaire was characterized as an important step in the process of bringing BiH closer to the EU membership, BiH officials agreed.
Zvizdic noted that the preparation and coordination of answers represented the most complex phase in the procedure of fulfilling the obligations from the European Agenda.
For his part, Juncker said that he and Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn are happy to be in an official visit to BiH, and stressed the importance of this day for BiH, and for Europe as well.
"Europe and BiH will, from now on, will go together. Today is a very important day because we are getting answers on the European Commission Questionnaire," Juncker emphasized in the opening speech.
Following the receipt of answers to questionnaire, the next step is for the Commission to start preparing an opinion on BiH membership application.
On Feb. 15, 2016, BiH formally submitted its application to join the EU, which was accepted on Sept. 20, 2016.
Hahn handed the EU questionnaire on the country's readiness to join the bloc to the BiH government on Dec. 9, 2016.
