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Bosnian Officials Pushed To Enact Reforms

European leaders have warned Bosnia that it has little hope of ever joining the European Union as long as it retains its current constitution. Earlier this year, a European advisory group known as the Venice Commission recommended drastic reforms of a political system it labeled "neither rational nor efficient and not even sustainable." Since then, significant strides have been made to overhaul the constitution, but key issues regarding the presidency and the parliament remain unresolved.

A decade after the Dayton accords ended the Bosnian conflict, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice next week plans to prod Bosnian leaders to join together to reject a patchwork of regional governments and ministries that helped end the war but kept the country divided along religious and ethnic lines. Rice will use a lavish 10th anniversary celebration of the peace deal in Washington to endorse an effort by the country`s Serb, Croat and Muslim political leaders to move beyond the terms of the agreement so Bosnia can begin to enter European institutions

Secretary Rice will preside over a signing ceremony Tuesday in which Bosnian political leaders will commit to an emerging consensus package and to getting a deal approved in parliament. By law, any changes to the constitution must be approved 170 days before the next election. A vote is scheduled for October 2006, meaning there`s little time left to act.