Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-15-Speech-3-105"
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"en.20060215.11.3-105"2
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"Mr President, Bosnia-Herzegovina is deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines, and long-term peacemaking there is dependent on these realities – which the elections, for example, strongly reflect – not being ignored, but rather respected and integrated towards the reasonable purpose set out in the Austrian President’s speech. We cannot do other than rejoice at the end of Lord Ashdown’s liberal dictatorship, which marginalised religious leaders among others, and look forward to Mr Schwarz-Schilling taking a more sensitive approach to arranging the country’s affairs.
There are two main issues with which we in this House will have to get to grips. The first, to which reference has already been made, is the process of reshaping the constitution. The country is at present an unequal federation, and unworkable in the long term, with the Bosnian/Croat Federation dominated by the Bosnians, the Serbs and their
and the Croats of Herzegovina, who keep themselves to themselves, but the ones who really are marginalised are those Bosnian Croats who can scarcely find a place for themselves in this scheme of things. That is why this structure will not work, even with the excessively bureaucratic addition of cantons. What is urgently needed is for the reform of the constitution to bring about a symmetrical federation of all three ethnic groups, and it must at the same time prune the cantons and the bureaucratic superstructures that make it impossible for the country to be run efficiently.
The second significant aspect is one that I have already mentioned, namely the faith communities and the absolutely fundamental part that they play in the country. A lot has been said here about Islam. When Bosnia became Austrian, the Austrians set up a public body for Muslims, and it is worth noting that it still exists in Austria today, making Austria the only EU country in which there is a representative organisation for Muslims that Muslims themselves accept as such. That is all tied up with Bosnia. There is also the Reis-ul-Ulema in Bosnia and Herzegovina itself, which, along with other institutions, is important as a manifestation of a European Islam, and the Christian faith communities in this country, represented by such outstanding personalities as Bishop Komarica, should also be actively involved in the peace process and accepted as legal entities."@en1
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