OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2008. A meeting of the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board (PIC SB) took place in Sarajevo on June 24-25. Its participants noted significant progress in the Bosnian parties’ fulfillment of the conditions set by the PIC SB for the closure of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in BiH and for its transformation into a mission of the European Union’s special representative. With the steady trend towards stabilization in the country, this made it possible to take at this stage already a final decision on winding down the OHR in full conformity with the position earlier formulated by the SB. Despite this, our partners carried on their line on artificially dragging out this process and keeping the possibility to continue using the High Representative’s special powers for pressure on the entities and for an arbitrary re-shaping of the Dayton government arrangement.

We consider that it is necessary to consistently implement the strategy for winding down the Office of the High Representative and promptly transferring responsibility for the future of BiH to the Bosnian parties themselves. Hopefully an OHR transformation decision will be adopted soon.