Brussels, 07/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - At their Council meeting in Brussels on Monday, EU foreign ministers backed the European Commission's recent favourable assessment of the preparedness of Bosnia Herzegovina for negotiating a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU, but the Council did not give its official go-ahead for the formal opening of talks, restricting itself on Monday to calling for the relevant Council work groups to examine the draft negotiating mandate unveiled by the European Commission to enable negotiations to be opened 'asap'. The formal decision is expected to be taken on 21 November at an upcoming meeting of EU ministers, in which case the negotiations can begin in December this year.
In its conclusions on Bosnia Herzegovina, adopted on Monday, the Council welcomed significant progress in reform, particularly the recent changes to the police force, but said there were still problems with public broadcasting legislation. The Council said that the speed with which Bosnia was able to approach the EU would depend (like all Western Balkan countries) on its capacity to put through the necessary reforms, meet the Copenhagen criteria and meet its pledges under the Stabilisation and Association process (like full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia).