Press Conferences

The OHR is surprised by some of the comments made following the most recent Supervisory Order issued by the Brcko District Supervisor, Susan Johnson on 4 August 2006. The order is fully in accordance with her mandate under the 1999 Final Award of the Brcko Arbitral Tribunal.

The High Representative, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, will be back in Bosnia and Herzegovina this evening. As you know, during his summer break the High Representative took part in talks chaired by Stability Pact Coordinator Erhard Busek in Salzburg aimed at resolving outstanding issues related to the implementation of Free Trade Agreements signed [...]

Senior Deputy High Representative, Peter Bas-Backer, met this week with FBiH Prime Minister Ahmed Hadzipasic and RS Minister of Administration and Local Government, Nebojsa Radmanovic, to discuss a concrete plan for adopting the amendments to the Law on Conflict of Interest.

The amendments to the Election Law being discussed in the BiH House of Representatives today would, if enacted, cause chaos. These amendments would in effect reinstate the old system. However, the new passive voter registration process is progressing well. Parliamentarians voted to move to this system only in February of this year, and the Central [...]

I wanted to meet you here this afternoon because this is really the optimal place to discuss the rights and responsibilities of Parliamentarians. As you know, members of the parliaments in BiH have discussed legislation that would give themselves more generous compensation packages than those that are available to the vast majority of BiH citizens. [...]

The BiH Law on Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices will be considered by the Constitutional-Legal Committee of the House of Representatives tomorrow. This law will regulate the sale and manufacture of drugs throughout the country: one of its principal objects is to make medicine safer and cheaper.

Good morning. I just want to give you a report from the meeting I had with Dr. Erhard Busek, the Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. We talked about free trade and we spoke about the benefits of Bosnia's integration into regional, European and world economies. Amongst issues that we covered was why the people of Bosn [...]

BiH Foreign Minister Ivanic and RS Prime Minister Dodik have recently suggested that there is a need for new political negotiations on police reform. There isn't. Last autumn political agreement was reached. This was endorsed by the two Entity parliaments and by the BiH Parliament. In this Agreement, all parties committed themselves to the formatio [...]

As you may know the Centre for European Integration Strategies has issued a report in which it analyses the issues related to the closure of OHR by the middle of next year. OHR welcomes CEIS’s contribution to the debate. The paper calls on the OHR to prioritise three critical issues: supporting constitutional change, securing BiH’s borders and comp [...]

The Administrative Committee of the BiH House of Representatives will meet tomorrow to discuss the Law on the Rights and Responsibilities of Parliamentarians. This law, which would give Members of Parliament pension payments and other benefits well in excess of those enjoyed by other citizens, has already been the subject of considerable popular in [...]