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A new education law in Bosnia might please the country’s European neighbors, but critics say it only locks in a broken system. SARAJEVO | The question of where the buck stops in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s education system isn’t easy to answer. The country has 14 ministries of education. There is one at the state level – technically in the Ministry of Civil Affairs – one in each of the country’s two entities, one in each of the 10 cantons, and one in the independent district of Brcko. It’s a recipe for bureaucratic chaos that hinders growth, and it’s hardly what European powers hoped for when Bosnia joined 28 other countries in signing the Bologna accords in 2003. Reached in 1999, the accords aim to establish a European Higher Education Area with more or less uniform quality and degree-granting standards.

Serbia is stepping up its resistance towards the idea of Kosovo becoming independent, with the country's prime minister Vojislav Kostunica sending a clear warning to the European Union - either it backs Belgrade or Pristina.

"The EU must choose...whether it will sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia or, under the United States' pressure, send a mission to implement [a plan for] supervised independence of Kosovo, snatching part of Serbia's territory", the statement says.

12 December 2007 The resolution of a major political crisis appear to have given Bosnia and Herzegovina’s politics a positive new direction. By Srecko Latal in Sarajevo The leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ruling coalition on Tuesday took another major step away from the recent political crisis and back onto the EU accession path.At a meeting in Laktasi, near Banja Luka, leaders of the six ruling parties agreed on the appointment of a prime minister; they also agreed to establish a task force that will draft legislation on police reform in the next two months, and, in addition to these practical measures, they agreed that a number of important issues – which have been sidelined by the recent crisis – will now be resolved as quickly as possible.

Broschiert: 297 Seiten Verlag: Nomos; Auflage: 1 (24. Oktober 2007) Sprache: Deutsch ISBN-10: 3832929754 ISBN-13: 978-3832929756

Taschenbuch: 171 Seiten Verlag: Nomos; Auflage: 2 (2007) Sprache: Englisch ISBN-10: 3832925139 ISBN-13: 978-3832925130

Bosnia and Herzegovina has taken a 'new step towards its European future' with the initialling of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), which is set to provide closer ties with the EU and trade benefits for the Western Balkan state.

The agreement was reached after a political deal on police reform was struck. Police forces in the Western Balkan country are ethnically divided into Bosnia's two regions, the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb Republika Srpska. The implementation of the police reform is also a condition for the full signing of the SAA expected in mid-2008.

06 December 2007 As the Serbian authorities prepare measures against Kosovo and the countries that will recognize its expected unilateral declaration of independence, diplomats warn such moves are likely to backfire. By Julijana Mojsilovic in Belgrade Ahead of the December 10 deadline for Kosovo’s status, there is mounting speculation about how the Serbian government is likely to respond to Kosovo’s anticipated declaration of independence.Facing the prospect of losing some 15 per cent of its territory, Serbia seems ready for a list of measures, such as sealing the border with Kosovo and severing or downgrading diplomatic ties with the countries that recognize the self-proclaimed independent state.

The presidents of Bosnia’s six major parties making up the parliamentary majority signed on Sunday a police reform declaration, which is expected to remove obstacles to the initialing and signing of a pre-membership agreement with the EU.The European Unione xecutive welcomes Bosnian agreement on police reform.

The EU on Monday (12 February) gave its clearest signal yet that it is ready to restart integration talks with Serbia before Belgrade hands over top war crimes fugitives such as Ratko Mladic.

With Serbia determined to reject the UN plan for Kosovo, the European Union has conceded it may postpone planned consultations on the plan until a new government is formed in Belgrade. An EU delegation to Belgrade, led by foreign policy chief Javier Solana, enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn and German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and separately Britain’s Europe minister Geoff Hoon, gave ground on February 7 after meeting Serbia’s president Boris Tadic, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic. After urging them to form a democratic government and take part in planned consultations over the Kosovo’s final status, they indicated they might push back the timetable.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina | The pending decision on Kosovo’s status and Serbia’s recent election results are consuming what little attention policy-makers give the Balkans these days. But by the end of February, over a decade of international efforts to forge a lasting peace and the ultimate integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the European mainstream will come down to one critical set of decisions. Late January saw the overdue and ill-camouflaged firing of Christian Schwarz-Schilling from the top job in the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and as EU special representative in Bosnia. In his face-saving announcement that he had decided not to seek an extension of his mandate, Schwarz-Schilling stated that OHR should not close as scheduled at the end of June. This judgment is almost certainly going to be confirmed in late February, when the Peace Implementation Council, the ad-hoc grouping of governments and international institutions that oversees the OHR, meets in Brussels.

A referendum to decide whether Romanian President Basescu will be impeached or not on alleged charges of having violated the constitution has been set for 19 May 2007, as doubts are raised over the country's ability to meet EU standards.

The dispute has raised concerns over Romania's ability to meet European requirements on judicial matters which could affect its capacity to absorb EU funds.

MEPs have urged Croatia to make progress on EU accession criteria but at the same time said that full membership will not be considered before the EU reforms its own institutions.

Croatia expects to join the EU as a full member in 2009, but MEPs on 25 April 2007 stressed that the current EU institutional framework (Nice Treaty) needs to be reformed before any further enlargements take place.

The UN's chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte has appealed to the EU not to jeopardise her efforts to pursue a top Serbian war crimes suspect in the interests of securing support for a UN plan on the future status of Kosovo. Mrs Del Ponte met with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Wednesday (31 January) and urged him to continue Europe's pressure on Belgrade to deliver ex-general Ratko Mladic.