EU defence ministers, meeting in northern Finland, hope ethnic tensions will cool and that newly-elected leaders will find common ground on how to run Bosnia after next year's dismantling of the protectorate set up after the 1992-95 war.
The aim is to convert the military presence, inherited by the EU from NATO in 2004, to a more civilian one involved in lighter tasks such as policing.
"There is already quite a strong civilian element to EU operations there, so it should not be too complicated," said spokesman for the Finnish Defence Ministry Jyrki Iivonen.
A final decision was not due at the two-day talks in the Finnish ski resort of Levi, but it could come as early as next month, the spokesman added.
The European Union called on the candidates and parties that won at Sunday's election in Bosnia to speed up the necessary reforms so as to enable Bosnia to draw closer to the bloc.