LAJCAK: THE CLOSURE OF THE OHR IS NEAR

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (May 22 ,2008) – The International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcák said the closure of the Office of the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR), is a matter of months.

In an interview published yesterday by Slovak daily Hospodarske Noviny,Lajcak, stressed the international community still had work to do in Bosnia and refused to speculate on when the OHR would be finally closed.

"I don’t want to speculate about when this would be, but we are definitely talking about months, and not years", Lajcak said.

In his recent half-annual report before the UN Security Council, Lajcak asserted that the country had made significant progress, but the work of the international community in Bosnia is not over yet.

Ambassador Lajčák said the main goal of the International Community from now on “will be to ensure that EU integration is at the top of the political agenda as the main cohesive factor.”

He stressed that “EU integration addresses fundamental issues of the Bosnian statehood” and added that “the European Union Special Representative in Bosnia (EUSR) is therefore the natural successor to the OHR as the principal coordinator of international engagement in Bosnia, once the time for OHR closure is right.”
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