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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.
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