Brussels, 05/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - Despite the initial opposition of the leaders of the Serbian and Bosnian parties to police reform plans presented by the EU special representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Miroslav Lajcak, on Wednesday 29 August, local media reported on Tuesday 4 September that negotiations will continue. On Monday 3 September, Mr Lajcak returned to this issue with the leader of the Bosnian party Haris Silajdzic and the prime minister of the Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik. “The process will continue … Lajcak's plan is one of a number of plans. (The talks have) been going on for three and a half years and most probably one day we will take the best of all the plans that we had so far,” Mr Silajdzic said after the meeting. Mr Dodik, reported by the Croatian news agency HINA, said after the meeting that the Lajcak plan provided the best basis for agreement. Mr Lajcak said that the fact that the talks were to continue was a good sign. “My proposal will be the basis for further talks on the police reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” he said, going on, “(Monday's) talks are a good step forward.” “Next week, I am going to Brussels … I intend to report that the police reform is moving in a good direction,” he added.
Last week, Mr Silajdzic and the leader of the second largest Bosnian opposition party Sulejman Tihic, along with representatives of the Serbian parties, publicly, and without discussion, rejected the proposed police reform. This brought strong criticism from European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, who, in a press release on Friday 31 August, said that he thought that such an action would set back Bosnia-Herzegovina's chances of concluding a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA). Mr Rehn, who wants agreement on police reform before finalisation of the 2007 progress report, expected by the end of September, called on all parties to continue negotiating in order to reach an agreement “without delay”. The Commission believes the reform is necessary to the conclusion of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, negotiated with Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2006. (aby)