Public information

The European Commission has been informed that the institutional negotiations on police reform have been suspended until next Monday. The RS representatives have expressed their wish to renegotiate the principles on which a comprehensive political agreement should be based.

Following the suspension of institutional negotiations on police reform until Monday, the High Representative warned that time for reaching an agreement is running out. An agreement on police reform must be reached in order for BiH to receive a green light to start negotiations on a Stabilization and Association Agreement by the tenth anniversary o [...]

High Representative Paddy Ashdown is worried that Bosnia and Herzegovina could miss the big date and as a result see another postponement of the talks with the European Union on the Stabilization and Association Agreement.

The OHR welcomes the important meeting of government institutions on police restructuring which will take place in Mrakovica tomorrow. It expects senior representatives, with negotiating authority, to attend these talks and to participate constructively in order to advance the process of negotiations on police reform.

The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, has expressed his disappointment that today’s meeting on police restructuring among political parties failed to yield clear results because some of the parties that were invited failed to attend. The aim of the meeting – which was chaired jointly by the High Representative and BiH Prime Minister Adnan Terzic [...]

Following informal discussions with party leaders the BiH Prime Minister, Adnan Terzic and the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, have invited those parties that took part in the Vlasic talks to attend a meeting in Sarajevo on Tuesday, 26 July.

The High Representative today welcomed the commitment from the Government of Republika Srpska to re-start talks on police reform with the Council of Ministers of B&H and Government of FB&H.

In response to the statement issued by the European Commission today noting the important step forward that has been made on delivering PBS legislation this week, but at the same time highlighting that police reform now must be tackled without delay if there is to be any possibility of commencing Stabilisation and Association negotiations before th [...]

The High Representative is in Brussels today where this evening he will meet with the European Unions High Representative, Javier Solana and the Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn. The High Representative will attend these meetings together with BiH Prime Minister Adnan Terzic.

I had hoped this would be an upbeat press conference but it’s a bleak one. I had hoped to be able to talk about the future. I had hoped to announce this morning that this country was, at last, joining its neighbours on the way to Europe. I had hoped to be able to announce, as a result, a series of initiatives which would have marked the beginning [...]