roatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman said on Tuesday he was confident Bosnia and Herzegovina would soon formally begin accession negotiations with the EU, which Zagreb strongly supports.

“I have received assurances that reforms are under way and that efforts are being made to reach an agreement and align positions, that progress is certain, and that we can expect the opening of accession negotiations,” he said in Mostar, southern Bosnia and Herzegovina after meeting with the leader of the HDZ BiH party, Dragan Covic.

In March, the European Council approved the opening of accession negotiations with BiH but did not set a date for their start. Brussels expects the BiH authorities to appoint a negotiating team and pass four laws as a condition for setting the date of an EU-BiH intergovernmental conference.

BiH officials expect the negotiations could begin in December during Hungary’s presidency of the Union.

Grlic-Radman, however, did not want to speculate whether that would happen, given the ongoing appointments of important bodies in the EU. He underlined that Zagreb strongly supports the Euro-Atlantic path of BiH and the other Western Balkan countries.

“From day one, the Croatian government, led by Andrej Plenkovic, has supported the Euro-Atlantic path. The security and stability of the Western Balkans are of invaluable importance. That’s why Croatia is an advocate and a sincere supporter of the Euro-Atlantic perspective and the integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.

Together with Croatian Culture Minister Nina Obuljen-Korzinek, Grlic-Radman is attending an international conference in Mostar today dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the restoration of the Old Bridge in that city, which was destroyed during the Bosniak-Croat war in 1993.

Grlic-Radman also met with the Chairwoman of the BiH Council of Ministers, Borjana Kristo.