Doubt over EU deal as Bosnian leaders reject police reforms

The signing of a pre-accession agreement between Bosnia-Herzegovina and the EU has been put in doubt after Bosnian leaders rejected a proposal for reforming the police.

The six nationalist parties in Bosnia’s ruling coalition are now almost certain to miss a 15 February deadline, which will in turn delay the phasing out of the main international body in the country, the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia (OHR).

On 26 February political directors and other top officials from the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), a consortium of 55 governments and international organisations which oversees the OHR, will meet in Brussels to discuss the situation.

High Representative Miroslav Lajcák, who is also the EU’s special representative (EUSR) to Bosnia, had hoped he could come to the PIC with an agreement on police reform in the bag. This would also have made it possible to discuss the modalities of the OHR’s phase-out and the strengthening of the EUSR mission, which will in part replace it.

An OHR spokesperson declined to comment on current plans for the handover.

The text of a pre-accession Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Bosnia and the EU was agreed and initialled in December, but formal signing is conditional on police reform.

While the SAA and the phase-out of the OHR are not formally linked, the OHR has for years viewed the prospect of an SAA as the main incentive for Bosnia’s divided politicians to agree on key reforms.

But on 2 February, the leader of the mainly Muslim Party of Democratic Action, Sulejman Tihic, unexpectedly rejected a compromise solution on police reform, saying it did not go far enough in integrating the police forces of Republika Srpska - the country’s Serb-dominated province - into a unified command structure.

The meeting ended in recrimination as party leaders vented their anger.

Lajcák entered the fray by slamming Tihic’s stance as "completely unexpected, harmful and unnecessary", saying that it was based on "petty political interests". He threatened action on the part of the international community, adding that the country would not be able to sign the SAA during Slovenia’s presidency of the EU, which ends on 30 June.

Police reform had already split the ruling coalition of nationalist Muslim, Serb and Croat parties in October, but a last-minute political agreement paved the way for the SAA to be initialled in December.

Milorad Dodik, prime minister of Republika Srpska and leader of Bosnia’s largest party, has said repeatedly that there is no need for the continued presence of the OHR once the SAA has been signed.

The SAA’s significance has only increased in recent years, as the use of the OHR’s sweeping powers - which include the removal of elected officials and the imposition or cancellation of laws - has become politically difficult. Several governments feel nervous about the possible use by Lajcák of his prerogatives, known as the Bonn powers.

Observers say that this puts into question prospects for constitutional reform, a pressing matter in a country burdened by ineffective and overbearing government.

The signing of a pre-accession agreement between Bosnia-Herzegovina and the EU has been put in doubt after Bosnian leaders rejected a proposal for reforming the police.