OHR’s Statement at the International Agencies’ Joint Press Conference in Mostar

Brussels Meetings An
Opportunity for Progress


As you know, the Peace Implementation Council Political Directors are meeting
today and tomorrow in

Brussels

,
under the chairmanship of the High Representative and EU Special Representative,
Christian Schwarz-Schilling.


Unusually, the

Bosnia and Herzegovina

participants, led by Prime Minister
Adnan Terzic, will consist not just of government officials but also of
representatives of the political parties in the BiH Parliamentary Assembly.


This is the last meeting of
PIC
political
directors ahead of their meeting in February when the

PIC
will meet to review and confirm their
decision to close the OHR in June 2007.


Each of the party representatives will be invited to make a short
presentation to the
PIC
. This departure from
the normal format of the meeting reflects the strategic juncture which BiH has
reached on its path towards Euro-Atlantic integration. More than two months
after the General Election, and less than three months before the

PIC
is scheduled to review its decision to
close the OHR, governments at the State and Federation level have not yet been
formed and key reforms that must be enacted before an

SAA
can be signed and before BiH can take the
next steps forward in its post-war recovery, have been put on hold.


This blockage in the reform process is unsustainable. It is damaging the
country’s prospects for stability and prosperity in the near time and it must be
resolved in the coming days – not months. Meeting with the

PIC provides party leaders with the
opportunity to make progress on coalition formation and the reform and the
broader Stabilisation and Association reform agenda.


Political directors will make it clear to the party representatives that the
international environment in which BiH operates is not static – conditionality
gets tougher the longer BiH dithers over key reforms.


The Political Directors will also make clear that the International Community
stands ready to work productively with all those parties that are resolved to
complete the final stage of the
SAA
process
and unblock the reform agenda.


Among issues that will be under discussion today and tomorrow are the urgent
need to establish a BiH Fiscal Council and make the budgetary structure at every
level of government consistent with available financial resources, and the need
to complete police reform and reactivate the constitutional reform process that
came so close to success in the spring of this year.


In addition to the usual communiqué, which will be issued at the end of the
session tomorrow, there two media opportunities tomorrow.


The HR-EUSR will address media representatives together with Prime Minister
Adnan Terzic after the
PIC
meeting with BiH
party leaders at 13.00 on Thursday 7 December at the

Justus


Lipsius


Building

in the “Europa” press
room.


The HR-EUSR will then give a press conference immediately after the

PIC
meeting has finished at 14.45 on Thursday
7 December at the
Justus


Lipsius


Building

in the “Europa” press
room.

Europa.ba