The Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council, meeting in Paris today, formally appointed Christian Schwarz-Schilling as the next High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Steering Board looks forward to working with Dr. Schwarz-Schilling when he takes up his duties as High Representative on 31 January 2006.
The Steering Board expressed its thanks to Paddy Ashdown, who, since assuming the post of High Representative on 27 May 2002, has overseen sweeping political, economic and administrative reforms that have helped prepare BiH for EU membership. The Steering Board expressed its particular appreciation for the contribution Paddy Ashdown has made in the fields of police, ICTY cooperation, defence, fiscal and judicial reform, for his work on taking forward the Mostar unification process and for his efforts to get the expanded BiH Council of Ministers to operate as an increasingly effective institution of governance.