EU negotiator Dirk Lange was quoted by the local press on Saturday as saying that the technical aspects of the negotiations can be completed within timetables with a relevant document to be initialled until 1 February 2007, but all of this is being prevented by the obstructed reform of the police.
A basic precondition for anything to be done after the completion of technical negotiations is the police reform, Lange, the chief negotiator for technical aspects, told the Dnevni Avaz daily.
The last round of technical negotiations between Bosnia and the European Commission is set for 15 December. After that all activities are suspended until the problem about a new organisation of the police structures is solved.
The police reform is being obstructed by authorities in the Bosnian Serb entity that rule out a possibility that new police districts ignore the boundary line between the two entities and that refuse the transfer of police powers from the entity to the state level.
The Bosnian Serb entity's Prime Minister, Milorad Dodik, has said on several occasions that he would not give up from the entity police even at the price of the country's exclusion from integration with the EU.
Next week, Bosnian officials will convene in Brussels in a bid to find a way out from this situation.