ASHDOWN: REFORMS SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY END OF NEXT JUNE

SARAJEVO, Nov 20 (Hina) - The international community's High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina has warned that the country's authorities must carry out reforms until the end of June 2004, which is what the European Commission insists on as a condition for starting negotiations on Bosnia's association with the European Union (EU). #l# Only 223 days are left, Paddy Ashdown told a news conference he called in Sarajevo on Thursday to inform the public that the feasibility study on the situation in Bosnia, adopted by the EC earlier this week, set new challenges to this south-eastern European state. Bosnia could start negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU in late 2004, if by that time it manages to carry out reforms in 16 areas defined by the European Commission's feasibility study, officials in Brussels have said. The study was handed over to Bosnia's representatives on Wednesday. A deputy director of the EC international relations directorate, Michael Leigh, who handed over the answer in writing from Brussels, told reporters in Sarajevo yesterday that the feasibility study was a positive answer to all that had so far been made in Bosnia with regard to economic and political reforms. Ashdown, however, told reporters on Thursday that the authorities actually had only six months for the completion of the reforms. The British diplomat voiced concern over possible political blockades to which some parties in Bosnia were prone. If the practice of giving priority to ethnic interests over the interests of all citizens in the country continues, Bosnia will never become an EU member, Ashdown said. (hina) ms sb