The European Union Police Mission (EUPM) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which took over from the United Nations in 2002, has made significant progress towards establishing a force of international quality as it enters its final year, according to a report submitted to the Security Council and released today.

"Measurable and telling progress has been made, notably in the strengthening of state-level law enforcement agencies and in relation to the furtherance of the principles of sustainability and local ownership," the report says of the EUPM, which was set up as a follow-on mission to the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina's International Police Task Force (IPTF).

"As the [EU] Mission enters the last year of the mandate, it is well placed, in partnership with the local authorities, to complete its prime directive, which is to leave in place sustainable and effective policing arrangements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in line with the best European practices," its adds of the country that was most-ravaged by the ethnic wars which split up the former Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s.

The EUPM is fully engaged in the restructuring efforts to create a single and effective police structure for the whole of the multi-ethnic country in line with the directive from international community's High Representative and EU Special Representative Lord Paddy Ashdown after the failure by the Republika Srpska, one of its two constituent entities, to arrest people indicted for war crimes. The other component is the Muslim-Croat Federation.

Among the achievements the report cites is the "considerable progress" in setting up the State Investigation Protection Agency, which is pivotal in the fight against major and organized crime in the country.

The EUPM has also given advice on all stages leading up to the introduction of new laws on surveillance of the State Border Service. Much effort has been put into making the nationwide national intelligence system effective and to ensure that it operates across all entities and police agencies in the country. An agreement has also been reached on rationalization and expansion of forensic capabilities.