The United Nations Security Council today extended for one-year the 7,000-strong European Union Stabilization Force (EUFOR) mandated to ensure continued compliance with the Dayton Peace Agreement that in 1995 ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, emerging from the devastation of inter-ethnic bloodshed, must now be allowed to take responsibility for its own political reforms and economic development while the international community clears up defined, outstanding issues, the world’s envoy to the country told the United Nations Security Council today.

In a final, emotional briefing to the United Nations Security Council today, the chief representative of the European Union EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina said that the Balkan country was primed for EU membership just ten years after the brutal war that had left its people traumatized and an infrastructure collapsed.

While Bosnia and Herzegovina has made real achievements in defence, intelligence reform, customs and indirect tax, the growing number of challenges to the United Nations-led police certification process requires attention, the Security Council was told today.