European Union Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele urged Bosnia’s political leaders to move on with stalled reform process, key for its aspiration to join the bloc, on the eve of a visit to the country.

“It is high time for Bosnia-Herzegovina to embark on the key reforms that are needed for its own good and for its ambitions to become an EU candidate country,” Fuele was quoted Wednesday as saying in a statement issued by the European Commission delegation to Sarajevo.

Fuele is to arrive for a two-day visit to Bosnia on Thursday, four days after the former Yugoslav republic held general elections.

Sunday’s vote results showed moderates gaining ground in the Muslim-Croat half of the country, but hardliners remained entrenched in the Serb entity, casting a shadow over Bosnia’s EU future.

In Sarajevo, Fuele is to meet the newly-elected members of the tripartite presidency as well as leaders of political parties to discuss the reforms needed on Bosnia’s EU integration path, the statement said.

Almost 15 years after the end of Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war between its ethnic Croats, Muslims and Serbs, the country remains deeply divided along ethnic lines.

Post-war Bosnia consists of two semi-independent entities–the Serbs’ Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The two are linked by weak central institutions while each has its own government.

A series of reforms allowed Bosnia to unify its armed forces, customs services and fiscal system. However ethnic divergences have blocked the process to boost central institutions to make the country more eligible for EU and NATO entry since 2006.

October 06, 2010
AFP

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