EU WARNS BOSNIA AGAIN ON POLICE REFORM

LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg (October 17,2007) – The European Union has repeated its warning to the political leaders of Bosnia about the need to introduce police reforms.

“It’s rather simple: no police reform, no Stabilization and Association Agreement”, said Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, with reference to a key agreement, the initialling of which has been held up for months.

“The sooner the political leaders of Bosnia can agree on this crucial reform, the sooner we can also move towards the EU pre-accession process, by initialling and then signing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA)”, Rehn added.

Javier Solana, the EU’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, confirmed that the top international official in Bosnia, Miroslav Lajcak, was working hard to find an agreement on police reform.

“For the moment, the process of signing the SAA is stopped until this issue is settled”, Solana said.

After the meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers called on Bosnian leaders to show responsibility towards their people and their desire to advance towards the EU.

At a meeting focusing on the Balkan issues, the EU council for General Policy and Foreign Affairs concluded that the upcoming meeting of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) that is to be held October 30 and 31 is an opportunity for the International Community to deal with the situation in Bosnia.

The conclusions adopted by the Council fully support the International community's High Representative and the EU Special Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak and his efforts to adopt the reforms that are of the essence for the country to move ahead, especially the police reform

The Council once again emphasized that the police reform agreement in accordance with the three EU principles is the key priority and one of the necessary conditions for Bosnia to initial the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the european union.

The Council expressed regrets over the fact that Bosnia's political leaders have not shown will to reach an agreement on police reform that is in accordance with the three EU principles.

The Council has also seen some moves lately that the political leaders of Bosnia have made and has asked them to show responsibility towards the people of Bosnia and its wish to become a part of the EU.

The Council noticed that the PIC meeting will be an opportunity for the International Community to deal with the situation in Bosnia and again emphasized the need of Bosnia’s fulfillment of all four conditions necessary to end the SAA negotiations that were defined December 12 2005.

The Council again fully supported Bosnia’s European perspective. The Council also emphasized that the tempo of Bosnia’s progress depends on Bosnia’s own efforts.

However, an SAA with Montenegro, initialled earlier this year, was signed on the margins of the foreign ministers’ meeting, putting the small Adriatic country two steps ahead of Bosnia in the EU integration process.