Feedback
Email this page
Print VersionBritish ambassador to BiH says OHR office will not close this month
02/06/2008
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) -- The steering board of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) is not expected to close the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and transform it into an EU office at its regular quarterly meeting this month. British Ambassador to BiH Matthew Rycroft said in Sunday's (June 1st) Dnevni Avaz newspaper that the PIC has set five conditions and two goals for closing down the OHR. Although he acknowledged progress in some areas, conditions remain unmet, he said. Asked to comment on predictions of an October shudown of the OHR, Rycroft stressed that everything depends on the will of BiH politicians to implement necessary reforms.
The OHR was to end its mission in July 2007, but PIC members decided that political turmoil over police and constitutional reforms left BiH unable to govern itself. The PIC identified five main issues that must be addressed in the short term -- apportionment of state property, resolution of defence property, completion of the Brcko Final Award, fiscal sustainability and entrenchment of the rule of law. In addition, two further conditions require fulfilment before transition: signing of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU and a positive assessment of the political situation in BiH by the PIC steering board. (Dnevni Avaz, RTRS - 01/06/08)
