The decision to grant EU membership candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is expected to be confirmed at an EU summit on Thursday, is an excellent and encouraging decision for the country, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in Brussels on Wednesday.

“If it is confirmed by the European Council at its meeting tomorrow, and I think it will be, it will be an excellent and encouraging decision for Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Plenkovic said.

EU ministers for European affairs recommended on Tuesday that Bosnia and Herzegovina be granted candidate status, which needs to be confirmed by the European Council.

Plenkovic and his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis have sent a letter to European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressing strong support for the EU integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina is an important, neighbouring and friendly country to us. It is oriented towards Croatia and Croatia is oriented towards it. This is a strong signal to Bosnia and Herzegovina to form the government at all levels as soon as possible, continue reforms and partly amend the constitution and electoral legislation,” the Croatian PM said.

Asked why he had sent the letter with Mitsotakis, he said that two important summits for the EU integration of southeastern European countries had taken place in Zagreb in 2000 and Thessaloniki in 2003.

Among the topics to be discussed at the EU summit is energy and efforts to reduce energy prices, which surged after Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.

Croatia is among the member states that are not pleased with the Commission’s proposal to cap natural gas prices at €275 per megawatt-hour.

“In our opinion, and in the opinion of most member states, that is too high. We should go towards 150-170 euros per megawatt-hour or even less if possible,” Plenkovic said.

Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are against limiting gas prices, fearing that that might reroute gas supplies out of Europe and disrupt energy markets.

Plenkovic said he wanted the Commission to revise its proposal and thus send a good and encouraging message.