Bosnia-Herzegovina should sign a key deal with the European Union within weeks and become a candidate for full membership by spring 2009, the country's leaders said on a visit to Brussels on Thursday, DPA reported. "I think that full candidate status could happen within a year of signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), but it is important to see the will in the EU and Brussels," Haris Silajdzic, the Bosnian member of the country's presidency, said. Bosnia-Herzegovina should be in a position to sign the SAA in April, assuming that a crucial reform to its police service is carried through, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said, adding that he was "confident" that an April signature was realistic. The EU has long said that every state of the Western Balkans has a future in the union. Bosnia's most recent step on the path towards the EU was to initial the SAA, which sets up cooperation on issues including trade and legal reform, in December.
