Serb nationalist calls on EU to grant Bosnia candidate status

FILE PHOTO: Milorad Dodik, of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD attends a news conference where he declared himself the winner of the Serb seat of the Tri-partite Bosnian Presidency in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina October 7, 2018. REUTERS/Ranko Cukovic/File Photo

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) - The new Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite inter-ethnic presidency called on the European Union on Monday to grant the country candidate status and said it was time for foreign judges and peace envoy to leave.

Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik, an outspoken supporter of Russia, was speaking as he sworn in in the parliament of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, one day before his official inauguration in Sarajevo along with the Croat and Bosniak members of the presidency.