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EU Membership.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 July 2004

Wednesday, 7 July 2004

Questions (191)

Joan Burton

Question:

187 Ms Burton asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on a recent article (details supplied) which reported that the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina failed to pass a key education law that would have brought Bosnia millions of dollars in World Bank funding; and if he will make a statement on this matter in its greater EU context as outgoing chair of the Council of Foreign Ministers. [20772/04]

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Written answers

An efficient, modern and inclusive education system is one of the key elements in the development of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a fully functioning European state.

In November 2002, the OSCE, in co-operation with the Bosnian education authorities, published a comprehensive education reform strategy which included proposals for the reform of higher education. On the basis of the strategy, a draft framework law on higher education was prepared by a team of experts, including representatives of the education ministries of the Bosnian Federation and of the Republika Srpska, the mainly ethnic-Serb entity.

The aim of the draft framework law is to increase significantly the number of students with access to higher education and to enable the recognition of Bosnian qualifications in other European countries. It would enable the universities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to participate in the European higher education area under the Bologna process and the Lisbon recognition convention and encourage greater mobility of students and academics within Bosnia and throughout Europe. Implementation of the law would also meet an important condition of Bosnia's membership of the Council of Europe.

I regret that the state parliament was unable to pass the framework law on higher education on 7 May as a result of the invoking by a number of deputies of the vital national interest protection procedure. The matter has now been referred to the constitutional court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for a ruling on the invoking of the protection procedure. In a statement on 11 May, the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia, Lord Ashdown, and the OSCE Mission in Bosnia noted that continued failure to pass the law would contribute to an increase in the numbers of ambitious young people leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina for countries in the EU and elsewhere, where the standards proposed in the framework law are already in force. The adoption of the law had been a condition for the release of a World Bank loan, in part for investment in the education sector. The World Bank has now restructured its direct budget support for Bosnia and Herzegovina and has specifically linked the release of $24 million in structural adjustment credits to the successful completion of key reforms, including adoption of a satisfactory framework law.

Bosnia faces enormous challenges in overcoming the legacy of violence and division from the 1990s and working towards the goal of eventual integration into EU structures on the basis of the shared agenda agreed at the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Thessaloniki in June 2003. In November 2003, the Commission completed a feasibility study on the opening of negotiations for a stabilisation and association agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina. It identified 16 major areas of reform and concluded that if significant progress were made in each of them, the Commission would hope to recommend to the Council by the end of this year that negotiations could begin. The Government has worked closely with the Commission, with the High Representative for Bosnia and with the Bosnian authorities over the past six months of Ireland's EU Presidency. There have been some very positive developments. I would like to pay tribute to the determination of the Bosnian authorities to pursue an ambitious reform agenda and to legislate for reform. The EU is encouraging them strongly to continue this progress and to focus in particular on the implementation of reforms over the coming months.

The European Union will continue to work closely with the Bosnian authorities, and with the High Representative for Bosnia, Lord Ashdown, in the task of consolidating peace and democracy and implementing the reforms required for Bosnia's progress towards a closer institutional relationship with the EU. Last month, the Council adopted European partnerships for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other countries of the Western Balkans. The partnerships draw on the experience of the current enlargement process and set out specific areas of reform in which progress is required for further movement in the integration process. The June European Council also adopted a comprehensive policy on Bosnia and Herzegovina outlining the practical arrangements to strengthen the coherence and effectiveness of the EU's involvement with Bosnia. This involvement will develop significantly by the end of 2004 with the transition from the UN-mandated, NATO-led peacekeeping force, SFOR, and the launch of an EU mission, including a military component.

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