Говори

I am delighted to have the opportunity to address you today. Over the course of the past three years I have spent a good deal of time visiting various municipalities all over BIH. I have listened to mayors and citizens and they have made it very plain – the current system fails to deliver adequate services to the citizens as a whole, much less to [...]

One of the themes of this conference has been “empowerment”. You have gathered here for three days to discuss challenges facing our society – violence, HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, unemployment. These issues affect all of us in one way or another. But we are not passive subjects. We can act and react. When we do that, when we seize the in [...]

It is an honour to address you today. We are here to mark another milestone in Europe’s mission here in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to pay tribute to you, the men and women that embody the European Union’s commitment to this country. BiH’s rightful place is in the European Union. To get there, BiH will have to undertake the reforms and reach the st [...]

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to address a meeting of mayors and local government experts, organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation; yesterday I was in Vitez, to meet with mayors from Central Bosnia Canton, and today it is my very great pleasure to take part in this Council of Europe conference on local self-governance.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my congratulations to the BiH Presidency and Foreign Ministry. In the course of the last year BiH has chaired the SEECP process ably. Sarajevo has hosted the SEECP foreign ministers and parliamentarians; and it has coordinated the crucial follow-up meetings to the London, Palermo and Thessaloniki Conf [...]

We are holding this discussion at an exciting point in this country’s political development. The Federation Parliament has recently approved the necessary amendment to the constitution and the implementing law that will allow for the direct election of mayors this year. On 2 October the citizens in municipalities across BiH will choose the men and [...]

The Federation Parliament has just approved legislation enabling the direct election of mayors. The pressure to do this came from a groundswell of popular opinion, some of it orchestrated by the mayors themselves. Their rationale is clear. Direct elections will provide them with a mandate that will increase their effectiveness.

One of the advantages of speaking about the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina before an international audience – even an international audience as knowledgeable as this one – is that the reality is significantly better than the reputation. What I am going to tell you about Bosnia and Herzegovina today is largely positive – and it’s not based on spi [...]

It is accepted wisdom that when waiters and taxi-drivers begin giving you stock tips it’s time to get out of the market. There’s probably some truth in that. When share trading assumes the kind of characteristics we more normally associate with a lottery, the market is erring on the side of “unnatural exuberance”. But we are far from that point [...]

Just five years ago there was no system to speak of that supported SMEs in BiH. The whole orientation of economic policy, such as it was at that time, was based on a hopeless attempt to resurrect the old industrial conglomerates that were the centerpiece of the socialist economy of former Yugoslavia. It was as if economic planners in Pittsburg or [...]