This information was given by Fabrizio Barbaso, the European enlargement director general, at the end of a two-day visit to Bosnia during which he informed state officials of Brussels' preparations for launching the negotiations.
As announced earlier, the European Commission is expected to approve a negotiating platform for Bosnia on Monday.
After the negotiations are formally opened, the first technical meeting is expected in January. Barbaso envisaged that the negotiations might be completed within a year.
He said the outcome would depend also on whether Bosnia continued to carry out reforms on which the European Commission insisted, primarily police reorganisation, public administration reform, fighting corruption, and full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.