Serbia has an important role to play in the region’s progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration, High Representative and EU Special Representative Valentin Inzko said today during meetings with political and religious leaders in Belgrade.

“The elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina have opened a window of opportunity for the region,” the HR/EUSR said during a meeting with President Boris Tadic.

The HR/EUSR stressed that Bosnia and Herzegovina can now take advantage of the improved regional environment and catch up with its neighbours. “Serbia’s progress sets a good example,” he said, and he urged Serbia to work with Bosnia and Herzegovina “to share this positive experience with its neighbour.

As well as holding talks with President Tadic, the HR/EUSR met the Minister responsible for European Integration, Bozidar Djelic, and the Chairman of the Council for ICTY and Minister Rasim Ljajic.

In his talks with President Tadic, the HR/EUSR stressed Serbia’s constructive role in the region during 2010. The Parliament’s Declaration on Srebrenica in March, and the President’s participation at the Srebrenica commemoration in July, along with a series of positive diplomatic initiatives have created a platform on which much better bilateral relations can now be built.

He also urged the Serbian Government as well as President Tadic to take this process forward by further strengthening relations with the BiH Council of Ministers and the BiH Presidency.

During his meeting with Patriarch Irenej and members of the Holy Synod of the Serb Orthodox Church, the HR/EUSR said the Church can also play positive role in reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He said religious leaders must “bear witness to the primacy of love – because without that the entire exercise of reconstruction and reconciliation cannot succeed.”

The HR/EUSR said the return of the Orthodox seminary in the centre of Sarajevo will be “a significant step in restoring the spiritual witness of a religious tradition that is an integral part of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s common life, and a platform for the experience of faith and the fostering of reconciliation.”