The Dayton Peace Agreement is the solution which will for years to come constitute the essential framework for the functioning of BiH – said the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH Mladen Ivanic in Sarajevo.
In his address to the attendants at the inaugural session of the Presidency of BiH, Ivanic said that big changes of the Dayton Peace Agreement do not seem realistic to him, and that another eight years should not be spent in mutual political exhaustion.
“It is true that there are many issues in BiH on which we disagree and this will not change soon. I will put aside these disagreements. In the coming four years I will put an accent on the subjects we can agree on”, Ivanic underlined, and expressed hope that the next four years of the BiH Presidency’s mandate will be remembered as years of cooperation and compromise.
Ivanic noted that, as the Serb member of the Presidency of BiH, he will pursue the equality of the Serb people on the whole territory of BiH, but that he will never undermine the equality of Bosniak and Croat peoples, or of citizens who are members of minority groups or of those to whom national background is not important.
“I have been elected to this post by the will of the citizens of Republika Srpska. It is my constitutional obligation to protect the interests of Republika Srpska, and this I will do. However, I am convinced that I will also protect the interests of BiH, because I do not think that the interests of Republika Srpska are necessarily contradictory to those of BiH,” said Ivanic.
He announced that the agreement on the coordination mechanism could be the first positive news in BiH in the course of this mandate.
“The mechanism of coordination with the EU should be adopted and I think that we are close to a solution. This will open the essential perspective for further EU integration, which is the shared interest that has been a constant in BiH for years, irrespective of the composition of the ruling coalitions,” Ivanic believes.
