Remarks by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton on Bosnia and Herzegovina at the AFET Committee

European Parliament, Brussels, 11 February 2014

For today let me start with as you did, Mr President, Bosnia and Herzegovina where I raised this issue as part of my introduction to the Foreign Affairs Council.

I think a number of things struck everyone, the first is that this was violent protest borne of frustration in the main because of the economic situation in Bosnia Herzegovina. Those of you following it closely will know unemployment rates are running at about 40%, huge numbers of unemployed young people and although we can never condone violence in any circumstances, it is very clear that there needs to be real leadership now, leadership that I think many of us who have been following the situation, not just in Sarajevo but beyond, have wanted to see really try and take the country forward.

If you look across the countries of that particular region, you’ll see significant progress being made in their journey towards the European Union and in their response to the political and economic needs of their people. Bosnia Herzegovina seems to me to be stuck.

Great efforts we’ve made, and I pay tribute to my colleague Štefan Füle who has been doing a lot of work on the Sejdic/Finci case, but we need to do more and a number of discussions have been going on within the EU; with Member States, with the Services, with the Commission, and with our partners, not least the United States to see what further we might be able to do. We have a strong presence on the ground, real regional leadership. We met with candidate countries last night and this was one of our topics of conversation, but we need to do more.

Reed the full remarks here: http://eeas.europa.eu/statements/docs/2014/140211_02_en.pdf

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