LAJCAK TO BRIEF NATO AND EU ABOUT POLITICAL AND SECURITY SITUATION IN BOSNIA

BRUSSELS, Belgium (November 7,2007) - The International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia, Miroslav Lajcak will hold today a series of high-level meetings with the EU and NATO officials in Brussels.

Lajcak will meet with NATO Secretary General, Jaap De Hoop Scheffer and address the North Atlantic Council.He will be briefing NATO and later the EU's Political and Security Committee on the current political and security situation in Bosnia and the conclusions of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) meeting last week.

The International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia will assure both NATO and the EU that the international community retains the necessary instruments to counter destructive tendencies and that it will not allow attempts to undermine the Dayton Peace Agreement, whether from inside or outside Bosnia,the Office of the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR) announced.

Last week the PIC underlined that the political and security situation in Bosnia is now of the utmost concern to the international community; since June Bosnia has moved no closer to initialing a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union.

Given the lack of progress on key reforms, the PIC gave its unanimous support to the need to refocus on completing implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, including efforts to strenghten the functionality of the Bosnian state.

In his meetings with European Commission Officials the Lajcak will underline that the Mostar Declaration of 28 October can serve as the starting point for a positive reengagement of the Bosnian government coalition parties. However, concrete steps are now needed to demonstrate that this is a serious effort,the OHR stated.