After the end of the PIC Steering Board's two-day conference in Sarajevo, the international High Representative to Bosnia, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, told a news conference that the Board had concluded that the constitutional changes as well as the reform of the police must be immediately implemented without waiting for the new government to be inaugurated.
Representatives of major powers from the West and of the Russian Federation, that make up the PIC, explicitly supported the set of constitutional reforms which the lower house of parliament rejected in April this year owing to the opposition by the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina and some deputies from the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) who then left the HDZ BiH to form the HDZ 1990.
Schwarz-Schilling told the press that "the April package" remained a basis and the first stage of the process of constitutional reforms in the country, whose implementation is a must.
"The reforms must now resume, regardless of negotiations on coalitions," the German diplomat said referring to the ongoing talks on possible coalitions in the state parliament and the government (Council of Ministers) after the 1 October elections.
The newly-elected Bosniak representative in Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, Haris Silajdzic, who is the SBiH party chief, has said that he refuses to accept the amendments which would retain the so-called entity system of voting in the state parliament. Silajdzic said that Bosnia actually needs an entirely new constitution.
Under the 1995 Dayton accords, Bosnia consists of two entities: the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska.
The latter entity is expected to take seriously the need for the reform of the police and to participate in a task force in charge of the matter.
Bosnian Serb authorities strongly oppose any idea that new police districts would ignore the boundary line between that entity and the entity populated mainly by Bosniaks (Muslims) and Croats.