[ Bosnia-Herzegovina ]

The 21th November - an important date for the Western Balkans (1)

With the start of SAA talks with Bosnia-Herzegovina, all Western Balkan countries will have established contractual relations with the EU.

• Croatia: candidate, accession negotiations
• Macedonia: SAA signed, candidate
• Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina: SAA negotiations

The speed of Bosnia-Herzegovina's SAA negociations will depend on the implementation of the police reform,
the public broadcasting laws, and on the co-operation with the ICTY, especially concerning the arrest
of Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić. The EU also decided to extend the mandate of the 6500-strong EUFOR peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina through next year and to keep the number of soldiers unchanged. The UN Security Council approved this today, explaining that Bosnia-Herzegovina still represented "a threat to international peace and security" in an unanimously passed resolution. However, the EU police mission, which will focus on fighting corruption and organised crime, will be reduced by half to about 150 policemen.