The EU Special Representative is the lynchpin in the European Union’s presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina ensuring a coordinated and coherent EU approach to building self-sustaining peace and stability by assisting the country move beyond peace implementation towards European Union integration.
The EU Special Representative is also the High Representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a mandate to oversee implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the December 1995 accord ending close to four years of war.
The EU Special Representative’s mandate is derived from the European Union’s policy objectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These include, in particular, helping achieve progress in implementing the Dayton Peace Agreement as well as in the Stabilisation and Association Process the process by which Bosnia and Herzegovina moves towards the European Union.
The ultimate aim is to help Bosnia and Herzegovina evolve into a stable, viable, peaceful and multiethnic country, cooperating peacefully with its neighbours and irreversibly on track towards EU membership.
To achieve these objectives, the EU Special Representative
- offers the European Union’s advice and facilitation to support political processes, including, in particular, the constitutional-reform process;
- promotes overall EU political coordination, reinforces internal EU coordination and coherence and ensures consistency and coherence of EU action;
- gives local political guidance to both EUFOR and the EU Police Mission;
- monitors rule-of-law activities and provides EU institutions with advise on this issue;
- supports the preparation and implementation of police restructuring and provides support for a reinforced and more effective criminal justice system;
- engages with relevant local authorities to achieve their full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY); and
- contributes to the development and consolidation of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The EU Special Representative implements his mandate under the authority and operational direction of the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary-General of the Council.
For more information on EUSR mandate see Council Joint Action 2009/181/CFSP of 11 March 2009 appointing the European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Council Decision 2010/111/CFSP of 22 February 2010 Extending the mandate of the European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina or visit Legal documents section.