Remarks by the EU Special Representative/High Representative, Miroslav Lajčak at the Press Conference

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Today’s conference has offered a platform for businesspeople – those who run companies and create jobs – to lay out the many limitations of the BiH business environment



  • unbalanced social contributions, for example
  • double taxation
  • fractured health and pension systems
  • inadequate regulatory systems

and these are just a few of the problems that have been identified and brought to the attention of policymakers.


A common theme that has emerged has been that many of these problems can be fixed not in years but in months.


Today the Prime Ministers and Mayor Djapo of Brcko have commited themselves to putting economic issues back at the top of the political agenda.


They have agreed a document – all of you will be given copies – a Platform for Action, that itemizes the economic areas where they will focus political attention in the coming legislative sessions. The initiatives listed here have broad support and in many cases almost all of the preparatory work has already been done – what is needed is a final political push – and that is what the three Prime Ministers and Mayor Djapo have committed themselves to provide.


I will now ask the Prime Ministers and Mayor Djapo to sign the Platform for Action.


Afterwards I will ask each of the signatories to make a brief comment and then we will take questions.

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