The Council of the European Union agreed with the conclusions of the European Commission and called on the relevant bodies of the Council to prepare guidelines for the talks so that they could open as soon as possible.
Bosnia-Herzegovina will be the last of the five Southeast European countries covered by the stabilisation and association process to start stabilisation and association talks with the EU.
Serbia and Montenegro opened the talks on Monday, and Albania has been negotiating since the first half of 2003. Croatia and Macedonia have signed such an agreement before. Croatia started talks on full membership in early October, and Macedonia is expected to receive membership candidate status soon.