Swedish FM on Bosnia's future

Croatia's and Serbia's EU integration will help Bosnia's stability "more than anything else", Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt believes. Bildt made the statement in a letter sent to his EU colleagues, after the British and Czech foreign ministers last month opened a debate on the Bosnia-Herzegovina future, the daily Dnevnik writes. Swedish FM on Bosnia's future But Novi Sad-based newspaper says the Swedish minister's position on the state of affairs in Bosnia and suggested solutions for its permanent crisis are significantly different from his British and Czech counterparts' position, which advocated keeping the Office of the High Representative, and strengthening of the central state institutions in Sarajevo. Bildt shared their concern over the current tensions in Bosnia and agreed that more attention should be paid to this former Yugoslav republic, but refrained from warnings such as those issued by David Miliband and Karel Schwarzenberg, that "history teaches us that the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina can deteriorate if nationalist agendas are entirely implemented". "We certainly need to dedicate ourselves to Bosnia, I also agree that Miroslav Lajcak's work should be strongly supported. Although there is room for concern over the latest developments, we should not overlook the fact that the process of stabilization, although slow, has begun to implement," he noted in the letter. But Bildt opposed the stance that the OHR should be kept, and that shutting it down would spell loss of a very important guarantor of stability. "I fully support Lajcak's appraisal that the old concept of the Office of the High Representative is obsolete and no longer useful, and that the priority at this moment must be enabling a transition toward a strong and long-term EU presence in the country,", Bildt, who served as the first high representative after the signing of the Dayton peace deal, wrote in his letter.

Swedish FM on Bosnia's future

But Novi Sad-based newspaper says the Swedish minister's position on the state of affairs in Bosnia and suggested solutions for its permanent crisis are significantly different from his British and Czech counterparts' position, which advocated keeping the Office of the High Representative, and strengthening of the central state institutions in Sarajevo.

Bildt shared their concern over the current tensions in Bosnia and agreed that more attention should be paid to this former Yugoslav republic, but refrained from warnings such as those issued by David Miliband and Karel Schwarzenberg, that "history teaches us that the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina can deteriorate if nationalist agendas are entirely implemented".

"We certainly need to dedicate ourselves to Bosnia, I also agree that Miroslav Lajčak's work should be strongly supported. Although there is room for concern over the latest developments, we should not overlook the fact that the process of stabilization, although slow, has begun to implement," he noted in the letter.

But Bildt opposed the stance that the OHR should be kept, and that shutting it down would spell loss of a very important guarantor of stability.

"I fully support Lajčak's appraisal that the old concept of the Office of the High Representative is obsolete and no longer useful, and that the priority at this moment must be enabling a transition toward a strong and long-term EU presence in the country,", Bildt, who served as the first high representative after the signing of the Dayton peace deal, wrote in his letter.