OHR

High Representative Addresses Political and Security Committee of the
European Council

The High Representative and EU Special Representative,
Christian Schwarz-Schilling, addressed the Political and Security Committee
(
PSC) of the
European Council in
Brussels
today,
together with General Vicenzo Coppola, the head of the EU Police Mission.

The meeting has just ended.

On the second day of his two-day visit to
Brussels, Mr Schwarz-Schilling
provided the PSC with an update on the
political situation in Bosnia and
Herzegovina (BiH) and discussed the
ramifications of last week’s decision of the Peace Implementation Council
(PIC) to close the Office of the High
Representative (OHR) on 30 June 2007.

The High Representative and EU Special Representative cited the precise
wording of the

PIC communique concerning the
closure of the OHR, pointing out that the

PIC
Steering Board “agreed to review and confirm in early 2007 the OHR clusure,
taking into account the overall situation in BiH and the region.”

He also made the case for reinforcing the EU presence in BiH and, in
particular, for building up that of the EU Special Representative and ensuring
that it is well resourced at the same time as the OHR is reduced.

“I consider that the build-up of the EUSR resources should take account of
the OHR downsizing process,” Mr Schwarz-Schilling told the
PSC.

Mr Schwarz-Schilling also discussed police reform, stressing that this was a
prerequisite for a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European
Union. The three EC principles on police reform are the following: all
legislative and budgetary competencies for all police matters must be vested at
the State level; no political interference with operational policing; and
functional local police areas must be determined by technical policing criteria,
where operational command is exercised at the local level.

SDHR in Banja
Luka 

The Senior Deputy High Representative, Ambassador Peter Bas-Backer, is
visiting Banja Luka today, where he
will meet Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and then Education Minister Anton
Kasipovic. During these meeting SDHR Bas-Backer will discuss Education
reform and in particular the current status of the Higher Education Law. We
will issue a more detailed statement after the conclusion of these
meetings. 

EUFOR

No statement.

ICTY

ICTY statement is available in audio-video format only.