Mr President,
Members of the European Parliament,
In the last ten years since the conclusion of the Dayton/Paris peace agreement Bosnia and Herzegovina has undoubtedly made great strides on the way to the creation of a multi-ethnic democracy. Today the likelihood of armed conflict is slight, the infrastructure has largely been rebuilt and efforts to establish a modern European State are under way.
The start of negotiations for a Stability and Association Agreement (SAA) between the EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina is certainly testimony to the progress achieved, both by the country itself and by the international community and the EU.
An important example of this progress is the abolition at the end of 2005 of the separate defence ministries for the Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH. All defence duties and personnel were transferred to a joint defence ministry at State level. This is a significant milestone in the country's development. The European EUFOR mission ALTHEA is working closely with these new State-level structures and with their colleagues in the NATO headquarters in Sarajevo to take these defence reforms further.
Another example is the introduction of a State-wide value-added tax on 1 January this year. This will give a much-needed boost to public revenues and also help to consolidate State structures.
A further significant step is also the agreement on the reform of the police, now at the implementation stage. It is needed to renew the current fragmented, costly and often inefficient system. The EU police mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUPM) will play an important role in this process. EUPM was extended for a further two years on 1 January 2006 on the expiry of its original three-year mandate. EUPM II's mandate provides for even stronger proactive support for policing against organised crime. EUPM, EUFOR and the High Representative/EU Special Representative work closely together in this area to provide coordinated, consistent and effective support for the executive authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Over the last few months efforts have also been made to reform the Dayton constitution. The negotiations launched last year were continued at the start of this one, but deferred for the time being at the end of January. Although the party leaders failed to reach agreement on an overall package of all the points at issue, concrete progress was made in some important areas – particularly in human rights and strengthening the position of the Chairman of the State-level Council of Ministers.
The constitutional reform process was always seen as a "process" rather than a "one-off event". In an election year like 2006 expectations about the future course of this discussion must remain realistic. In January the Council welcomed the discussion on constitutíonal reform and the progress achieved so far – as expressed in its conclusions. The Council urged all parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina to keep this process moving forward and in this context also stressed the need for the decision-makers of Bosnia and Herzegovina to take on more "ownership".
A further important issue which will still concern us this year is the future of the High Representative and of the presence of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim here must be to replace the "push" of the international community – embodied mainly in the comprehensive Bonn Powers of the High Representative – by a "pull" from Brussels. What I mean is that the powers and scope for intervention of the international players should be reduced as part of a transition from the Office of High Representative in its present form to an EU Special Envoy.
This is also the declared aim of the new High Representative, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who took over this post from Paddy Ashdown at the end of January, namely as High Representative increasingly to adopt the role of facilitator and take forward the europeanisation of the country. With the parliamentary elections in BiH coming up in autumn 2006, we consider the transition to an EU Special Envoy and the use of the proposed powers of intervention only in emergencies, to be an important signal for the further development of BiH.
The framework for the pre-accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to European structures – as for the other countries of the Western Balkans – is the Stabilisation and Association process (SAP). The start of SAA negotiations, and hence negotiations on contractual relations with the EU, signifies an important step in BiH's evolution towards the EU.
After the formal opening of SAA negotiations on 21 November 2005, the first official negotiating round under the co-chairmanship of the European Commission and the Bosnian chief negotiator Igor Davidovic was successfully completed on 25 January. Progress in the country's reform process will be crucial to the further advance of the negotiations.
The integration process has so far proved a strong engine for reform. It is important that further steps be taken, particularly in
At the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Thessaloniki in June 2003 the EU reaffirmed its declaration of a European perspective for all States of the Western Balkans. This fundamental affirmation that the future of the Western Balkans lies in the European Union was again confirmed and reaffirmed by the European Council in June 2005. Each country's progress towards pre-accession to European structures depends above all on the Copenhagen criteria and the conditions laid down in the Stabilisation and Association process being fulfilled.
The Commission communication submitted at the end of January 2006 on the future organisation of EU relations with the Western Balkan States outlines pre-accession steps that go beyond the Thessaloniki agenda. In the communication, developments since the Thessaloniki Summit are assessed and a series of concrete measures for bringing the Western Balkan countries even closer to the EU are put forward.
On the occasion of the informal EU-Western Balkans Foreign Ministers meeting in Salzburg on 10 and 11 March we intend to reaffirm the EU's aims and reach an agreement on how and by what means the EU can further strengthen its commitment to the region. This meeting will undoubtedly provide a valuable opportunity to agree on concrete measures to promote stability, security and prosperity in the Western Balkans through the region's gradual involvement in European structures. The Commission communication will provide an important basis for this process.
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