Southeast Europe has the capacity to introduce a new and positive dynamic to the European Union – culturally, politically and economically. To speed up the process of EU integration in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the European Union will continue its support to progressive groups.
However, change in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2009, like change in Central Europe in 1989, must come from the inside, the High Representative and EU Special Representative told an international conference in Austria today. Inzko recalled the crucial role of trade unions, radical and moderate reformers, dissidents, religious communities and tens of thousands of citizens, who before had never before been politically active, in democratizing the societies of Eastern Europe.
The conference, in the Tyrolean resort of Alpbach, was convened to explore the lessons of the huge political change that swept the continent twenty years ago and gathered, besides the HR/EUSR, UNSG Ban Ki-moon, SECI Coordinator Busek, former German State President Herzog, Russian Ambassador to the UN Tchurkin and a number of prominent political figures and representatives of civil society of Central and Eastern Europe.
The full text of HR/EUSR’s speech can be found at www.ohr.int and www.eusrbih.eu