High Representative and EU Special Representative, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, met with the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, this morning in Sarajevo to discuss the current political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the country’s prospects of signing a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union.

The High Representative and EU Special Representative explained that a compromise agreement on police restructuring implementation respecting the three EU principles had been on the table this week, but that political leaders had failed to seize the opportunity. “Without political agreement on police reform, there will be no progress on BiH’s road to Europe”, he warned.

Commissioner Rehn made clear that an SAA would only be initialled when the entity and state-level governments had adopted an agreement on police reform and it would only be signed once entity and state-level parliaments had passed the necessary legislation to implement the reform.