Bosnia Fails to Agree Police Reform, EU Goal Hit

Bosnia rival leaders rejected a proposal on Thursday for police reform seen vital to its goal of joining the European Union.

Bosnia's rival leaders rejected a proposal on Thursday for police reform vital to its goal of joining the European Union, hurting its efforts to gain membership of the bloc, an international envoy said.

The political agreement by Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats on how to reform the country's ethnically separate police forces is a key condition by the European Union to sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Bosnia.

Following several failed attempts to clinch a deal over the past month, the latest compromise proposal was offered by a Bosnian Croat political block in a meeting in parliament, but Bosnian Muslim and Serb leaders rejected it.

"We don't have an agreement, we don't have a chance, a hope for the agreement, and we don't have a chance that this country is going towards Europe," Bosnian international peace overseer Miroslav Lajcak said after the meeting.

"This is the decision by political leaders who think it is better to reject the agreement, and this is the message that Bosnia-Herzegovina is sending today to Europe," Lajcak said.

The Slovak diplomat took the job of powerful international overseer in July. He can impose laws and sack officials seen as obstructing the peace process. Lajcak had pledged to speed up Bosnia's progress towards the European integration.

Under the Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-95 war, Bosnia is made up of the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic, each with its own police force. Bosnian Muslims want a unified force, while Bosnian Serbs want to keep their own force.

EFFORTS OVER

Lajcak said rival blocks had stuck to their earlier arguments and that his efforts on mediating the reform were over. He had set Oct. 15 as the deadline for the agreement

"The issue of police is over. It takes two to tango," Lajcak told reporters. He said he would travel to Brussels on Monday to brief the EU foreign ministers on the latest development.

But he reiterated his earlier warning that Bosnia was facing isolation without an agreement.

Lajcak said that in light of the failure to reach an agreement, he would now be putting his focus on his role as international envoy rather than on his parallel position as European Union special representative.

"The European Union is not a priority for my partners here and I have to adjust to it," he said.

Without the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the first rung on the ladder to the EU membership, Bosnia could become the only Balkan country without any formal contract with the block.

Montenegro is expected to sign the agreement this year. Serbia hopes to initial it soon, pending the U.N. chief prosecutor's report on its cooperation with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal.