Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-22-Speech-3-327"
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"en.20081022.22.3-327"2
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Mr President, Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, I read recently that Bosnia is a well-meaning state, but a state that is not working. This country has to live with the Dayton Agreement which, thank God, ended the war in 1995, but which contains too little for the state as a whole to function and too much for it to perish.
The country has a political class which is as good as useless when it comes to taking responsibility. Two politicians in the country dominate the political scene and affect each other like interconnecting pipes. One wants to return to the pre-1999 days; in other words, he wants the break-up of the two entities. The other wants to make his entity into a state within a state.
However, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina can only function if everyone faces the facts and realises that constitutional reform is only possible with the agreement of all three ethnic groups. Both entities must strengthen the state as a whole. Therefore, Bosnian politicians themselves all need to set about constitutional reform through the competent institutions, especially parliament, and ensure that they involve civil society in the process.
The Muslim-Croat Federation could set an example. The unworkable configuration of communities, ten cantons and a federal government was not its fault, but it is a nonsense. Decision-making levels must be reduced to the absolute minimum and brought as close to the citizens as possible, if the requirements of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and for accession to the EU are to be met.
Around 167 ministers and all that entails are the biggest drain on the state. The rivalry between the two aforementioned politicians and their hangers-on is having fatal consequences. They are setting the ethnic groups against each other in the tried and tested manner by fomenting anxiety and mistrust. The ethnic divide has become wider rather than narrower. Instead of going all out to tackle a common energy supply, create a functioning common market, improve the general education system and attract investors to the country with credible policies, party political bickering and boundless mistrust rule current politics.
Does Sarajevo still need the High Representative? He has not used his wide powers for a long time. No one any longer fears his command, even if it were to come; we can therefore ask ourselves if there is any reason why the EU Special Representative should not take over his position and take care of the EU conditions, so that Bosnian politics can finally start on the most important reforms needed to push the country forward.
The politicians could not be more inactive than they are now, even after his departure. It only remains to hope that perhaps then they will wake up and take their fate into their own hands. The EU has been trying for years, with funding and know-how, to release the country from its agony, but the results are not overwhelming. The people who want to return are unable to do so and, as a result, the ethnic divide is becoming more and more entrenched. Obscure privatisations and corruption, the lack of freedom of the press in parts of the country, the intimidation of NGOs: all this is making people lose heart and turn their back on the country.
The endless discussion about political reform ruled the political scene for over three years, until agreement was reached on a highly insubstantial bill. Nonetheless, the EU clutched at this straw and signed the agreement, so that other important political projects in the country could finally be pushed ahead.
We here in Parliament also support this step and are waiting for the politicians to take advantage of this opportunity. I should like to emphasise once again that only the overall state of Bosnia and Herzegovina can become a member of the EU. Anyone who undermines its ability to function does not want to achieve this objective, whatever they may say. I can therefore only appeal to all members of parliament in the region to come to their senses once and for all and predicate their policies on the welfare of their citizens."@en1
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