EU ready to boost Bosnia ties following police reform deal

(BRUSSELS) - EU officials on Wednesday hailed Bosnia's adoption of long-disputed police reforms, saying it opened the way for the Baltic state to sign the first accord on the way to European Union membership.

"I welcome the final adoption of the police reform laws, which paves the way towards signing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA)," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a statement.

The SAA trade and aid pact "will not only bring practical benefits in trade and thus for the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it is also the gateway towards candidate country status for EU accession," Rehn added.

The signing of the agreement would probably take place in May or June, a spokeswoman from the EU's Slovenian presidency said.

Earlier Wednesday lawmakers in Bosnia's upper house definitively adopted the police reforms, removing the last hurdle for the country to sign the key pact on closer EU ties.

Two police reform bills passed by 10 to four votes, ending years of dispute among Bosnia's Croat, Muslim and Serb leaders about the extent to which they should integrate the country's separate ethnic police forces.

The lower house of the Bosnian parliament approved the reforms last week.

The EU had insisted that the laws be passed before it would allow the country to sign up to the SAA.

Since the 1992-1995 war, Bosnia has consisted of two autonomous entities: the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

The two are linked by weak central institutions while each has its own parliament, government and police.

Brussels had called for unification of the separate police forces, but the Bosnian Serbs insisted on retaining control of police in Republika Srpska. The Croats and Muslims wanted the forces to be unified and put under central control.

Eventually the EU and the parliament accepted reforms that will involve setting up seven new state-level police coordination bodies, without immediately affecting the autonomy of the two forces.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana "hailed" Bosnia's adoption of the reforms, his spokeswoman Cristina Gallach.

"It's a fundamental step" which "opens the way to signing the SAA she added.

The deal will require the agreement of all 27 EU foreign ministers but the text is unlikely to be ready for their next meeting in Luxembourg on April 29, the EU presidency spokeswoman said.

The deed was therefore likely to be done at one of their subsequent meeting on May 26 or June 16, she added.

The EU has made the integration of the whole Balkans area, including Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo, a priority to stabilise the region.

Of the former Yugoslav republics only Slovenia is currently an EU member. Croatia is likely to be come the 28th EU member state next year or in 2010.

However relations with Serbia, the largest country to be formed from federal Yugoslavia, have been soured over European support for February's declaration of independence by its breakaway province of Kosovo.

Nevertheless most EU member states hope to sign an SAA with Belgrade soon, maybe at the April 29 foreign ministers' meeting.

They must first convince Belgium and the Netherlands to drop their insistence that Belgrade first make more effort to arrest war crimes suspects, notably former Serb military chied Ratko Mladic.