Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-14-Speech-3-215"
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"en.20070314.18.3-215"2
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".
Mr President, honourable Members, we welcome your House’s initiative towards a proposal for a European Parliament recommendation to the Council. We have read this extensive report and the recommendation with much interest, and are largely in agreement with the analysis of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the next steps to be taken by Sarajevo and by the international community.
It is for this reason that the Council has decided to extend the mandate of the EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the consequence that, from 1 March onwards, Dr Schwarz-Schilling will, on that basis, participate in the constitutional reform process as an advisor and mediator.
In June last year, the Dayton Peace Implementation Council decided, in principle, to close down the High Representative’s office by 30 June and abolish his position, but it reviewed this decision at the end of February, since developments since the summer of 2006 had fallen regrettably short of expectations.
The resurgence of nationalistic rhetoric and the perceptible standstill in the reform process are doing nothing to make the beginning of a sustainable process any easier, while unpredictable regional factors following the delays in settling the status of Kosovo are also coming into play; indeed, it was these that prompted the Peace Implementation Council to postpone the deadline. The Peace Implementation Council, then, takes a view of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina that coincides exactly with that expressed in your House’s recommendation for a proposal, more specifically that to be found in paragraph 32 of the proposal. The intention is that the position should again be reviewed in October 2007 and February 2008 in order to facilitate the transfer from the office of the High Representative to the EU’s special representative by 30 June 2008.
Russia has so far felt unable to endorse this line on the grounds that the deadline extends beyond November 2007 and has announced that it wants to draw its own conclusions.
Perhaps I might, by way of conclusion, return to the subject of the ruling of the International Court of Justice concerning Srebrenica. It was only to be expected, in view of the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s claims against Serbia were not allowed to stand, that this should be greeted by differing responses, with some Serbs ignoring the court’s admonitions and expressing relief, while the Bosnian reaction tended more towards disappointment and frustration.
Our desire – and our hope – is that this ruling from the ICJ will eventually, despite the differing responses it evoked, result in the closing, in a fair manner, of this painful chapter, for that, too, is a vitally important precondition for the future development of a thriving Bosnia and Herzegovina.
At its last meeting, on 5 March, the General Affairs Council welcomed the formation of the new government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, after difficult negotiations, came into being on 9 February as a broad coalition of the major parties from the three ethnic groups under a new Prime Minister, Nikola Spiric, a Bosnian Serb. The Council also called on Mr Spiric to ensure the rapid and effective implementation of all the outstanding reforms, not least on the grounds that this is a precondition for the conclusion of this stabilisation and association agreement.
Negotiations on technical aspects of the SAA were successfully concluded at the end of 2006; the three conditions for its conclusion waiting to be fulfilled are reforms in the three areas of the police, public broadcasting and public administration. The fourth precondition is cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. If it makes progress in these areas, Mr Spiric’s new government will be able to further open the gate that leads to the EU.
The European Union’s attention is currently focused on the reform of the police in particular, an agreement on which was concluded in October 2005, confirming that the underlying principles of the desired changes were the jurisdiction of the whole State over police matters, the exclusion of political influence and the necessity of functioning police districts. The police reform directorate submitted its final report on 27 December 2006, and this must now be approved, at the policy-making level, by the governments and parliaments of the State and of the Entities.
The main points of dispute are the Republika Srpska’s demands for the retention of its own police and internal affairs ministry and of police districts extending beyond the entity borders. The Council has called on the new government to use the current momentum to make progress on police reforms, which are, and will remain, a precondition for the signature of the stabilisation and association agreement.
While the EU welcomes the talks on the report from the police reform directorate, it still notes with concern the failure to meet the projected deadline of 2 March, by which agreement was to have been reached on reform of the police. The European Union expects all parties to discharge the commitments they made under the political Agreement of October 2005.
We urge the parties to reach an agreement incorporating the three fundamental principles specified by the Commission, firstly, that the State should possess all powers in respect of the police and should be responsible for their funding; secondly, that functioning police districts must be established on the basis of technical policing criteria, and, thirdly, that there must be no political interference in police operations.
As Mrs Pack has just made clear, it is also important that progress be made with the constitutional reform if the State’s ability to function is to be strengthened and the current constitution brought into line with EU standards. The successful formation of a government has paved the way for new progress.
It would be seen as a positive first step if the package of amendments to the constitution agreed on by six political parties in March 2006 were soon to be adopted. It would lay the ground for the onset of a more ambitious process by the middle of 2007, which would help to make Bosnia and Herzegovina an even more effectively functioning state."@en1
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