CHAIRMAN OF THE BIH PRESIDENCY:

It is a great honor and pleasure to welcome President Türk to Bosnia and Herzegovina and I hope that this visit will contribute to a better and more efficient cooperation between our countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina has two main goals. First one is to become EU member and the second is NATO membership. I hope that Slovenia will continue to support Bosnia and Herzegovina on that path. Today, we also heard from President Türk that he wants to help and change the perception about Bosnia and Herzegovina, saying that perceptions bear the same importance as facts in politics. He would  like to improve the perception about Bosnia and Herzegovina in the EU, so we can establish better ties with the EU. We also feel that sometimes this image is less positive than we would like it to be.

Today we talked about agreements that we have particularity the Social Security Agreement. When it comes to social security of our citizens working and living in Slovenia, this agreement is particularly welcome and is being successfully implemented. We also talked about the importance of Slovenia’s support of BiH’s non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council. We heard from President Türk that Slovenia would support us. Of course, Bosnia and Herzegovina has offered to support Slovenia’s non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council.

I would like to say that when it comes to savings in foreign exchange, we have not made any progress. We are on the standstill. President Türk has also mentioned certain judgment by the European Court of Human Rights. In any case we are on the standstill. We think that it ought to be a bilateral agreement, a property and civil dispute, whereas President Türk expresses Slovenia’s view, which differs from our view, and is directing us to former National Bank that was the guarantor of all deposits.

This would be my conclusion. We have various meeting planned for today. We will also visit Srebrenica and I hope that President Türk and his delegation will have a pleasant stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that they will retain good impressions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.               

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA:

“Thank you very much president Silajdžić. I would like to say right away that I am very pleased to be here in Sarajevo as President of Slovenia, paying an official visit to friendly Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have to make sure that these kinds of visits become regular, that we meet at the highest level regularly and use these opportunities to accelerate the process of membership of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the EU. I would like to stress that the time frames are narrow, that we are talking about the changed visa regime, about abolition of visas in a year or so, and a candidate status for Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2010. In Slovenia we believe that these are realistic objectives and we have to make all out efforts to have them realized and implemented. Bosnia has made great economic progress is developing well and is normalizing. We have to make sure that the perceptions in Europe are accurate. There were too many occasions when there were misperceptions on European stage and Slovenia can be helpful in removing the misperceptions about Bosnia and Herzegovina, and thus help the political understanding of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its natural place in the EU in not a distant future. We also have other projects. We have to discuss where we can help each other. President Silajdžić has mentioned the candidature of Bosnia and Herzegovina for membership in the UN Security Councilor a post of non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. The two governments are discussing at present the concept of mutual support for these candidatures. And as I said at the meeting this morning we are very close to finalizing this. Personally, I shall make my contribution for that finalization to take place. We have discussed other bilateral questions as well, and I would like to mention specifically the issue of Ljubljanska Banka which President Silajdžić also mentioned. Here I would like to draw your attention to recent judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, a judgment which has the value of precedent for all issues of this nature. The Court has directed the parties to solutions that can be found in multilateral agreements between successor states of Former Yugoslavia. The part relating to a Bank of Former Yugoslavia is still a piece of an unfinished agenda. There is an opportunity to expedite the process and finalize that as well. Finally, I have to say that bilateral relations between Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are excellent. The recent entry into force of the Social Security Agreement has demonstrated that. That Agreement has entered into force, so it is an effective agreement by now.  There will be other opportunities to develop further agreements in relevant spheres. However, we also have to make sure that high-level visits become regular and frequent, so that we can deal with all questions of our bilateral relations and our common future as often as necessary”.      

Thank you very much

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