Quantum Leap Forward in BiH’s Path to European
Integration

As you know, BiH negotiators will today begin talks inSarajevo with
representatives of the European Commission on a Stabilisation and Association
Agreement. If BiH concludes an agreement – and this could be done as early as
the end of this year – it would represent a quantum leap forward in this
country’s path to full integration with the rest of
Europe.

The High Representative has called on BiH’s leaders to “seize this
opportunity before the doors to
Europe close.” BiH must
demonstrate, quickly and conclusively – that it is a serious candidate for
membership.
Europe will have no patience if BiH’s leaders
show any tendency to dither.

The High Representative has urged BiH’s leaders to assume responsibility and
take the initiative in keeping the process on track, “ushering in a period of
intense activity and effort so as to bring quickly to all BiH’s citizens the
benefits of an ever closer relationship with the EU.”

“Speedy progress,” he adds, “will require determination, commitment – and
most important of all – concrete results. Results will take BiH to
Europe and results will create job opportunities.”

HR Attends First Meeting of BiH Police
Directorate

The High Representative will tomorrow attend the first meeting of the BiH
Directorate for Police Restructuring.

The Directorate has been established under a Council of Ministers
Decision following the adoption of the EC approved Agreement on Police Reform in
October last year.

The Directorate is a technical body made up of BiH police experts, who,
under the terms of the political agreement adopted by Entity and State
Parliaments, are due to produce an implementation plan by September this year.

The importance of the work of this Directorate cannot
be overstated.  BiH citizens routinely allude to rising crime
as one of their greatest concerns, and the rise of organised crime in
BiH and the extension of its influence to other countries has become a major
concern among BiH’s European partners. The work of the Police Directorate
will make a direct and positive contribution to tackling this problem.

High Representative to Visit Srebrenica

At the conclusion of a three-day farewell tour of
Bosnia
and Herzegovina, the High Representative, Paddy
Ashdown, will visit Srebrenica, on Wednesday 25 January 2006.

On his arrival in Srebrenica, the High Representative will meet Mayor
Abdurahman Malkic and representatives of the Association of Mothers of
Srebrenica and, together with them, pay his respects to the victims of the
Srebrenica Massacre, at the Potocari Memorial Centre.

The High Representative will visit returnees to Srebrenica with whom he and
his wife, Jane, have stayed in the past.

The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, is making a three-day farewell tour
of Bosnia and Herzegovina starting in Trebinje and Mostar on 23 January 2006,
and then moving on to Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje and Banja Luka on 24 January, and
Srebrenica on 25 January 2006. Besides meeting political representatives, the
aim of the visit is to meet with BiH citizens and discuss changes that have
taken place in this country over the last three and a half
years.