Speeches

Thank you for inviting me, once again. Ahead, you face some truly momentous decisions about the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And these will be the subjects of my speech today. But first, let’s take stock of where we are. Steady Progress This year we have made some real progress. Sometimes, amid the sound and the fury of day-to-day polit [...]

I am delighted to have been asked to participate at this conference. I am an economist; the focus of the conference is security – and the point that I wish to make this morning is that you can’t have security if you don’t have economic stability. Economics and security are inextricably bound up.

Let me add my words of congratulation to the Greek Presidency for this summit. This has been a good discussion. It has underlined three things very clearly. First, the European Union wants the Western Balkans countries to join – ‘no ifs, no buts’, as Romano Prodi put it. Second, that you must first meet the same standards and values that make [...]

Last week, my wife Jane and I spent a night with a displaced Bosnian family in their home near Visegrad. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful spot, high in the mountains, with the Drina river tumbling through the valley a couple of thousand feet below. Together with our hosts for the night – the Setkic family - we sat sipping tea, watching the sun go [...]

Let me begin by thanking the UNDP and our friend Moises (Venancio- UNDP Resident Representative) for organising this event. The UNDP has formidable experience in governance reform. You see it done best – and worst, all over the world. Here in BiH, you are certainly approaching the subject of governance reform from the right perspective – from tha [...]

The connection between economic theory and practice is a crucial issue, at the heart of the present effort to create a self-sustaining market democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The good news is that today the proportion of good ideas being transformed into sound and useful legislation is increasing substantially. This is because governments are [...]

A year ago today, I had the honour and privilege of taking up the position of High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. We’ve achieved a lot in the last year; but there’s a great deal more to do. I said, when I began this job, that my priorities would be justice and jobs.

We are here today to inaugurate a BiH project that is a positive model of how companies in this country can expand successfully – and create new jobs and raise living standards. This information pillar is a small steel computer platform with dedicated software – but it is much much more than the sum of its parts. For one thing, it represents cons [...]

First of all, allow me to commend Prime Minister Mikerevic on his lucid and authoritative presentation this morning. The Prime Minister has spoken about measures that are necessary in order to stimulate investment. It will fall to the Prime Minister and his government to implement these measures - his working day is dominated by the challenge of pu [...]

I would like to begin, as always, by extending my thanks to you for inviting me to attend your session today. We have had a turbulent few months so it is important that I should come here personally to hear your views and give you mine. I come here at an opportune moment. We have completed the first phase of our journey, and are about to start [...]