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The EU presidency on Friday said it hoped to begin Bosnia's formal path towards European Union membership as soon as possible, after the country's lawmakers adopted a key police reform package."Police reform is the crucial step for Bosnia-Herzegovina which should allow the country to further progress on the path towards EU integration," the EU's Slovenian presidency said in a statement.

Bosnian lower-house lawmakers adopted the police reforms by 22 votes to 19 late Thursday.The decision stills need confirmation in the upper house but that is considered a formality.

In the end the EU and the Bosnian parliament accepted a reform which envisages setting up seven new state-level police coordination bodies, without immediately affecting the autonomy of police forces of the country's two highly autonomous post-war regions.The adopted bills stipulate the new bodies will assume authority over separate police forces after a year, in a way defined by constitutional reform.Bosnian initialled the SAA in December, and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said last month that Brussels expected to fully sign the agreement with Bosnia in April, pending the implementation of the police reforms.

16 June 2008 Luxembourg _ Bosnia and Herzegovina has signed a key pre-membership deal with the EU and taken its first crucial step towards the bloc.

The agreement outlines key legal and institutional reforms Bosnia will have to implement in the next six years in the areas of customs, trade, administration, economy and social services. Local and international officials have already hailed signing of the agreement as the second most important document for Bosnia after the Dayton peace accord, which ended the 1992-1995 war and provided a blueprint for Bosnia’s current administrative and political setup.

Dieser Sammelband gibt einen Überblick über die 20 zentralsten Politikfelder der EU – wie z.B. die Agrarpolitik, die Strukturfonds, den Verbraucherschutz, die Umweltpolitik. Für diese Politikfelder wird jeweils ein Abriss über die historische Entwicklung gegeben und auf die wesentlichen Steuerungsmechanismen und die maßgeblichen Akteure bei der Politikformulierung und Implementation eingegangen. Dabei wird jeweils die konkrete Ausprägung und Bedeutung des Mehrebenensystem thematisiert, das EU-Politiken in unterschiedlicher Weise kennzeichnet.

ZAGREB -- The European Commission (EC) has temporarily frozen Croatian Phare projects. It has also reduced the funds allocated to the country via the IPA program by EUR 5mn because of weaknesses in creating a decentralized system of management of projects backed by EU funds.

In its 2007 progress report on Croatia, the EC said that the country had shown great weaknesses last year in implementing a decentralized system for management of pre-accession assistance, said Nagy and warned that Zagreb had to deal with these weaknesses as soon as possible.

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.

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.

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.

The enlarged European Union needs new instruments for exporting stability and change into the fragile regions and countries beyond its borders. That is why the EU is developing and implementing the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP): a strategic concept which is to enhance the Unionïs capability to be a driver of reform - without automatically promising the " golden carrot" of membership to the neighbours. This book provides the reader with information on what ENP wants, how it works and what the prospects of the Unionïs cooperation with neighbouring countries are.

In 2004, the European Union adopted the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)[1] to support its partners’ political, economic and social reform processes and to deepen bilateral relations with them. Today, Commission reports on the progress achieved by the first partners to have agreed ENP Action Plans with the EU: Ukraine, Moldova, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Tunisia and Morocco – during the first eighteen months of their implementation.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is yet to reach internal political consensus on its EU path, the head of the European Commission's delegation to the country, Ambassador Dimitris Kourkoulas, told EurActiv in an interview.

Looking at other Western Balkan countries, could we say that the others are advancing, albeit at different speeds, while there is little or no movement from Bosnia?  I wouldn't say there is no movement forward, but it is very slow, and what is still missing is a consensus among all political forces to keep the political integration away from political infighting. This is what candidate countries in the recent past, including Bulgaria and Romania, have done. There had been an agreement between all political forces to have their differences, but to agree on European integration. This has not happened yet in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Recently, high-ranking Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko was appointed as high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Wasn't this a hint that the international presence will still be needed in the years to come?  Mr. Inzko is the high representative of the international community, but at the same time, he is the EU special representative. He enjoys the full support of the members of the Peace Implementation Council. We had a joint visit of US Vice-President Joe Biden and EU High representative Javier Solana, which was also a very strong indication that we are on the same line and our common aim is to give full ownership to the country, but once the conditions are met. We cannot take the risk of doing it in a premature way. 

How have the main institutions and decision-making processes of the EU responded to the arrival of new member states? This book assesses the actual state of the EU institutions in the years after the 2004 enlargement, examining each of the main institutional actors as well as trends in legislative output, implementing measures and non-legislative approaches. The contributors outline the key changes as well as patterns of continuity in the institutional politics of the EU. The analysis finds that breakdown has been avoided by a combination of assimilation of the new member states and adaptation of the system, without any fundamental transformation of the institutions. Nonetheless, they conclude that it is not just 'business as usual'.The streamlining and formalization of procedures, together with increased informal practices, has implications for transparency and accountability. Widening has not prevented deepening of European integration, but it has deepened normative concerns about the democratic legitimacy of that process which will remain very much on the agenda of the enlarged EU. This nuanced approach to the complexities of studying institutional politics and change contains important new and original data. As such it will be invaluable for postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students of EU politics and administrative science, as well as researchers, practitioners and journalists working in the fields of European studies more widely.

This summer came 10 years since Nato stopped bombing Serbia. Agreement was made that Serb forces leave Kosovo and the province will be administrated de facto international protectorate by UN being however under sovereignty of Serbia (UNSC resolution 1244). So ten years has gone, the province declared independence and EU is now implementing its agenda after UN’s modest try – or better say failure. As my picture about Kosovo is much more negative than high flown UN/EU reports a small update about Kosovo case is justified.

It is universally accepted that there has been a huge growth in EU lobbying over the past few decades. There is now a dense EU interest group system. This entirely new volume, inspired by Mazey & Richardson's 1993 book Lobbying in the European Community, seeks to understand the role of interest groups in the policy process from agenda-setting to implementation. Specifically, the book is interested in observing how interest groups organise to influence the EU institutions and how they select different coalitions along the policy process and in different policy domains. In looking at 20 years of change, the book captures processes of institutional and actor learning, professionalisation of lobbying, and the possible emergence of a distinct EU public policy style. More specifically, from the actors' perspective, the editors are interested in assessing how the rise of direct lobbying and the emergence of fluid issue-based coalitions has changed the logic of collective action, and what is the potential impact of 'venue-shopping' on reputation and influence. From an institutional perspective, the contributors explore resource and legitimacy demands, and the practical impact of consultation processes on the emergence of a distinct EU lobbying relationship. It will be essential reading for academics and practitioners alike.