Statement
of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina continued its ninth session, begun on November 28, 1996, in Sarajevo today.
On the basis of a proposal of the Office of the High Representative, the Presidency agreed on the following initial organisation of the Council of Ministers:
The work of the Council of Ministers will be led by two Co-Chairs of the Council of Ministers (one from the Bosniak people and one from the Serb people), who will rotate weekly in chairing the Council and performing the duties of the Chair. There will be a Vice Chair of the Council (from the Croat people), a Minister for Foreign Affairs (from the Croat people), a Minister for Civil Affairs and Communications (from the Serb people) and a Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Relations (from the Bosniak people). Each Minister shall have two Deputies from the other two peoples.
The Presidency gave concrete instructions to the Working Group created by its decision of October 29, 1996, concerning the organizational aspects of the setting up of the Council of Ministers, as well as the establishment of secretarial, protocol and technical services of the Presidency itself.
The Presidency discussed the report of the Working Group concerning the preparations for the Peace Implementation Conference in London on December 4-5, 1996, and agreed on further course of action.
The Presidency agreed to take part in the upcoming OSCE Summit in Lisbon.
The Presidency received a letter from the Secretary-General of NATO concerning the Follow-on Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina and replied with a confirmation letter.
On November 28, the Presidency considered the proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Commission on EU-funded economic reconstruction programmes in the amount of 146.71 million ECU and agreed with its contents subject to further consideration of the details of the programmes for which a separate protocol was signed. It was agreed that objections to the allocation of the funds will be forwarded to the EU Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Donato Chiarini, who together with the working group composed of Zlatko Hurtic, Drago Bilandzija and Spasoje Albijanic will balance the allocation of the funds and forward its proposal to the Presidency within 15 days.
Preparation for the signing of other already negotiated agreements with international financial institutions will be expedited.
The Presidency extended an invitation to the delegation of the European Commission to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina for talks on the initiatives of the regional approach of the European Union.
The Presidency was informed about the results of the meeting of the telecommunication representatives and experts nominated by each member, held at the Office of the High Representative with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in order to determine the modalities for the realization of the EBRD telecommunication reconstruction project. The Presidency supported further activities in that direction.
The Presidency accepted the SECI initiative of American President Bill Clinton and determined the composition of the delegation which will represent Bosnia and Herzegovina at the meeting in Geneva on December 5-6, 1996.
The Presidency supported previously forwarded invitation of Chair Alija Izetbegovic to Pope John Paul II to visit Sarajevo.