Leaders of the European Union agreed on Thursday to make Bosnia-Herzegovina a formal candidate to join the bloc of 27 nations.

"Bosnia-Herzegovina was granted the status of candidate country today. A strong signal to the people, but also a clear expectation for the new authorities to deliver on reforms," European Council President Charles Michel said in a tweet.

General affairs ministers of the EU countries had already agreed on the candidate status for Bosnia earlier this week.

It will be joining other EU candidates - Albania, Moldova, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine - in the process to join the EU, which can take many years and involves complex negotiations on adjusting local laws to match those of the EU.

The approval was just a formality after European affairs ministers agreed unanimously earlier in the week to endorse a recommendation from the bloc’s executive arm to grant Bosnia the status.

The war in Ukraine has served as an accelerator for the bloc’s enlargement process. EU leaders this month to six Western Balkan countries aspiring to join that they have a future place in the bloc.

At a summit in Albania, the EU "reconfirmed its full and unequivocal commitment to the European Union membership perspective of the Western Balkans" and called for the acceleration of accession talks with the membership hopefuls.

Expansion of the EU had stalled in recent years. But since Russia attacked Ukraine in late February, EU officials have emphasized that stepping up the bloc’s engagement with Western Balkans nations was more crucial than ever to maintaining Europe’s security.

The EU also agreed in June to make Moldova and Ukraine candidates for membership and said Georgia would be eligible for candidacy once the country met goals defined by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm.

The European Commission recommended granting Bosnia candidate member status in October, more than six years after the country formally applied to join and nearly three decades since it emerged from a 1992-95 interethnic war that left more than 100,000 people dead.

Once a country becomes a candidate, it still can take years before admission to the club takes place. The EU last admitted a new member, the Balkan nation of Croatia, in 2013. The path toward membership is a lengthy process, as countries must meet a detailed host of economic and political conditions.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said in October that Bosnia needed reforms on issues that include the judiciary, battling corruption, and constitutional and electoral changes. Little progress on those issues was made in recent years.

While Bosnia expressed a desire to join the EU starting in 2003, the country’s ethnic leaders have so far proven unwilling to put aside their differences and implement necessary reforms. The staunchly pro-Russian Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, has increasingly threatened to separate Bosnia’s Serb-run part from the rest of the country.