In talks with senior French diplomats in Paris today High Representative and EU Special Representative Valentin Inzko said France plays an indispensable role in supporting implementation of the Paris-Dayton Accords and must remain a key player in efforts to get Bosnia and Herzegovina out of its current crisis and back on the road to Euro-Atlantic integration.

Earlier, at a conference organised by the French Institute for International Relations, the HR/EUSR said that by reconfiguring its resources in Bosnia and Herzegovina the international community will be able to act more effectively to resolve political deadlock and remove obstacles that have been placed in the way of progress.

He said that the preparations to give the European Union “maximum effectiveness in a changed and still changing situation” are well advanced and that “an appropriate toolbox” will help the new EU representative to “stop a small minority of politicians holding up progress for the overwhelming majority of citizens.” He further emphasised that what is needed in the current circumstances where the state, its institutions and the Dayton Peace Agreement are under attack is readiness to make use of the tools available. Besides, he also underlined the importance of maintaining EUFOR with an executive mandate.

The HR/EUSR said the “ideal scenario” would have been to separate the OHR and the EUSR “through the closure of the OHR when its function was seen to be no longer necessary,” but that “obstruction, nationalist rhetoric, and serious administrative, social and economic crises” have arrested progress on the five plus two agenda and shown that the OHR is still needed.

The full text of the HR/EUSR’s speech can be accessed at www.ohr.int and www.europa.ba