Speeches

We are here today to discuss the investment climate in Bosnia and Herzegovina and what can be done to improve it. So let’s look candidly at why investors are hesitant about putting their money into the local economy. Some of the reasons are fairly straightforward: the recent war has left a legacy of negative perception - lingering images of violenc [...]

This will be my last address to you as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. On May 27, I am handing over to my successor and friend, Lord Paddy Ashdown. I am convinced that Paddy will prove to be an excellent choice to carry out this difficult task.

It is my very great pleasure to welcome you here today. The calibre and seniority of the participants at this conference attest to the important recognition among decision-makers in Bosnia and Herzegovina that efficient regulation is a central component of a prosperous market economy. I would like to begin by expressing our sincere thanks to the Sw [...]

Once in a while everyday events highlight much larger issues and bring them into vivid contrast. Today’s opening of the secondary school annex in Zepce does just that for me. For the last nine years the young people of this town have experienced segregated schooling - separate but certainly not equal. They have studied, played, and socialised [...]

In the last six years, Bosnia and Herzegovina has undergone a triple transition - from war to peace, from communism to democracy, from a planned economy to a market economy - and let’s not forget that like many countries, including the other countries of former Yugoslavia, it has had to define itself -- for the first time in its modern histor [...]

When I took up my mandate in Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 1999 Yugoslavia and Croatia were ruled by the same leaders who had brought about the disastrous conflicts of the 1990s. Their proxies still wielded power in BiH. Consequently refugees saw little hope of returning to their homes. Reform was effectively blocked by wartime politicians, who [...]

The Office of the High Representative is working with local and international partners to establish the legal and political framework that Bosnia and Herzegovina needs if it is to achieve economic lift-off. The framework is now partly in place. But there is still a great deal that needs to be done - and time is of the essence! Bosnia and Herzegovin [...]

It is with great pleasure that I am with you today. Over two and a half years have passed since I took up the post of High Representative in August 1999. It is a truism to state that the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the wider region was considerably different then compared to what we face today. Yugoslavia and Croatia were ruled by re [...]

I would like to express my thanks to Ulrich Bucher and all his staff in Canton Six. As the Special Envoy for Bugojno, Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje and Prozor-Rama, Mr Bucher was responsible for streamlining OHR operations, closing the Bugojno office and establishing headquarters in Travnik, where he is the new head of office.

In the two and a half years since I became High Representative in BiH, I have found myself repeating the phrases "institution building" and "rule of law" again and again - not because they have some sort of mantra-like power but because they are shorthand for the body of legislation and practice which a modern democracy needs in order to work prope [...]