Reform laws take Bosnia closer to EU entry-top aide

Bosnia's international peace overseer Miroslav Lajcak said on Friday the adoption of a reform package by the Bosnian parliament was a step towards membership of the European Union.

The approval came late on Thursday when Bosnia's Serbs, Croats and Muslims reached a compromise deal on reforming the police after four years of often stormy debate.

"I am sure that will enable the European Commission to consider a positive recommendation for Bosnia-Herzegovina to sign an Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in the coming weeks," Lajcak said in a statement.

The EU had said the laws must be passed for Bosnia to sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the first step towards membership.

European Commission enlargement spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy welcomed the reforms but sidestepped a question on whether the SAA would be signed on April 28 in Luxembourg.

"We have to assess the fulfilment of all the conditions, so it would be premature for me to speculate on the exact timing," she told reporters in Brussels.

Lajcak played a key role in closing the gap between Bosnian Muslim leader Haris Silajdzic and Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik.

Parliament voted narrowly to pass the laws, with the support of the Bosnian Croat parties.

Prime Minister Nikola Spiric, who had threatened to resign over the deadlock, said parliament had compromised "in the interest of the citizens and the state."

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The assembly's upper house is expected to approve the laws on Monday. State control over local police agencies will enter into force once Bosnia adopts a new constitution.

The Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic - Bosnia's two autonomous regions created after the 1992-95 war - have run separate police forces since hostilities ended.

The Serb Republic has resisted unification of the police, bristling at what it says are attempts to dismantle its autonomy within Bosnia.

Under Lajcak's plan, state bodies will control and coordinate the work of various security agencies, performing some police activities at the state level without interfering in the work of regional police forces.

The signing of the SAA should speed up visa liberalisation with the European Union, free-up EU pre-accession funds for Bosnia and send a positive signal to potential investors.

Osman Topcagic, head of Bosnia's Directorate for European Integration, told the Dnevni Avaz daily the country hoped to receive official EU candidate status by the end of 2010.

Bosnia, along with neighbour Serbia and newly-independent Kosovo, are the only ex-Yugoslav states yet to sign the SAA.

Critics said the reform was purely cosmetic.

"We shall probably get the signature but not a good reform law," said Bakir Izetbegovic of the Party of Democratic Action, Bosnia's largest Muslim party.