NEW POLITICAL AGREEMENT NEEDED TO PUSH BOSNIAN POLICE REFORM FORWARD

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 22,2008) - Head of the EU Police Mission in Bosnia (EUPM) Vincenzo Coppola has warned about a delay in the reform of the Bosnian police. In a comment to that, the Bosnian Deputy Minister of Security Mijo Kresic asserted that, in order to implement what had been agreed so far, a new political agreement is needed.

As he explained, the Ministry has submitted to the Bosnian Council of Ministers a list of its preferred candidates to helm the future policing agencies. The Council now needs to make a selection of six (heads and their deputies).

Another decision expected from the Bosnian central government is where the agencies would be headquartered. Finally, the representatives of three constitutive peoples in Bosnia need to agree on the distribution of chair positions on the basis of ethnicity. Adopting the police reform laws was a condition Bosnia had to meet to sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union.
.