EU Tells Bosnia: No Deal Without Police Reform

Without a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, Bosnia could become the only Balkan country without any formal contract with the block.

The European Union will not sign an agreement key to Bosnia-Herzegovina's path towards EU membership if it does not move forward with police reform, the bloc's top enlargement official said Friday.

Bosnia's rival leaders once more failed to agree on Thursday over EU demands that police in the country, now consisting of two separate forces, be organised at state level, financed from a single budget and free from political bias.

"The EU's position is clear -- no police reform, no agreement," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a news conference, referring to a planned Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the first rung on the ladder to EU membership.

Without a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, Bosnia could become the only Balkan country without any formal contract with the block.

Under the Dayton peace accords that ended its 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.

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

"I regret that key party leaders have not shown the political will and spirit of compromise necessary to reach an agreement," Rehn said.

"Bosnia-Herzegovina's political leaders now need to decide which direction they want their country to take ... they need to determine whether European integration is a real priority."