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The bridges we open here officially today - here at Gradiska, as well as Samac, Dubica and Slavonski Brod, will carry commerce and people between countries and peoples - not just between Bosnia and Hercegovina and Croatia, but on into the rest of Europe. Their closure - and their destruction - symbolised the horrors of war. The rupture of trade and contacts between communities, the isolation of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the European family of nations. Today we are taking an essential first step towards ending that isolation. Slowly - sometimes painfully slowly - we are starting to reconnect the arteries which link this country to the outside world. We are starting to make a reality of the slogans we speak about at meetings - freedom of movement for people, for goods and for services. I want to take this opportunity to thank all those who have worked so hard to make this possible. Minister Albjianic, Minister Luzovec for their work on the text. SFOR for literally rebuilding this bridge and for the repair and reconstruction work they are have and are performing on the others. I am travelling after this ceremony to Slavonski Brod to see the bridge there, and later to Brcko to see the bridge which Secretary Albright opened earlier this year. And I want also to thank the international community for providing the hard cash to carry out the work. Now I am the first to recognize how much more needs to be done. This is a first step - but without first steps, no other steps are possible. We need to do a great deal of hard, practical work before even these border posts which we open today become 100% operational. But I am a firm believer in getting on with the job, not talking about it. That's why we are opening the bridges today, before waiting for every single piece of the bureaucratic puzzle to fall perfectly into place. Let us now use the momentum we have gained really to forge ahead. I want to open the remaining border crossings without delay. I want the Council of Ministers to appoint the Border Commission - not in six months' time, but within the next week. I want to get on with the building of the remaining roads, railways and bridges. I want us to do away with ridiculous and often illegal obstacles to travel - such as the imposition of road allowance fees or so-called transit visas for foreign vehicles by the RS authorities. That is unconstitutional. It will not be tolerated. I want to tackle the discrimination against BiH citizens who live in Republika Srpska. They need a visa to travel into Croatia, but their compatriots who live in the Federation do not. This is unconstitutional and must be stopped. My office will push hard to ensure that all citizens of BiH are treated equally by other states. And finally, we must deal with the Kafkaesque nonsense of the car registration system in both entities. That means scrapping the present arrangements. So we have a formidable agenda. The two delegations will meet today here in Gradiska. They will have to address these problems. But they, and the Commission, will also look at the opportunities - the reopening of the Zagreb to Split railway for example, which both Croatia and BiH want to re- open. So too plans for a highway from Zagreb to Dubrovnik. Both represent real chances to lure foreign investment and to create jobs. And they will also help to bring in people and rebind the sinews of trade and commerce, create jobs and provide people of the region with a real economic future. All this represents a great lot of work. Can we complete it? I see no reason why not, given guts, energy and perseverance. We have the resources. We have the support of the international community. We can - and are - literally rebuilding the bridges to Europe and a better economic future. We are going to get on with the work; make no mistake about that. But there is one thing we cannot supply - and that is a determination on your part, the local parties, to begin rebuilding the metaphorical bridges - the bridges to each other, the bridges between communities and peoples. Today we have shown what can be done. I promise you that in declaring, with satisfaction, these crossings officially open, we are not going to leave it at that. We are going to work away day and night to get all the rest open too. And once open, we are going to keep them open.
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