Eerste stappen naar Bosnisch lidmaatschap EU (en)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is due on Tuesday to initial an agreement seen as the first step towards the EU membership talks, making it the final Western Balkan country to fully set off on the European path, which Brussels predicts will lead to "a bright future".
"I have decided to initial the Stabilisation and Association agreement (SAA) with Bosnia and Herzegovina tomorrow," EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn i said on Monday (3 December) in Sarajevo.
His announcement came after the Serb, Bosniak and Croat leaders agreed on the integration of the country's police forces - one of Brussels' conditions for moving ahead with its EU plans.
Late last week, Bosnia's parliament also adopted new voting rules aimed at streamlining its work and seen as crucial for solving one of the worst political crises since the end of 1992-95 war.
"I am very pleased that I did not come in vain since leaders of the country have convinced me of their commitment to finish the job concerning police reform," Mr Rehn said.
The integration of police forces is required as a way to tackle organised crime. Currently, all three major nationalities in BiH have their own separate police.
The approval of police reform, as put forward by the UN's top envoy to Bosnia, Miroslav Lajcak, was preceded by months of tough political wrangling and personal attacks against the Slovak UN governor.
In November, Bosnian Prime Minister Nikola Spiric, a Serb, stepped down in protest against Mr Lajcak's plans, with the leaders of Republika Srpska increasingly raising the prospect of a break-away from the federation.
But commissioner Rehn suggested that the agreement between the top politicians has proven the sceptics "wrong" about the country's "troubled future."
"The country has a bright future on its road towards the EU which is supporting such economic and democratic reforms that the citizens of this country deserve," he added.
The move by Brussels to allow Bosnia and Herzegovina to initial the SAA, which Sarajevo hopes could be signed as early as in January, follows a similar gesture towards Serbia in early November.
According to Mr Lajcak, Bosnia's Muslims in particular had been "quite critical" of the Serbia decision and suggested that the EU was maintaining double standards for the two Balkan countries by making agreement on police reform a condition for moving forward with the SAA.
But he said on Monday that the decision to adopt an action plan on the package shows that "Bosnian politicians have understood that the road to EU integration represents the best possible development strategy for the country."