Brcko, 09/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten took part on the 8 March (with among other, the American Secretary of State Madeline Albright) in the inauguration of the Brcko district. Mr. Patten felt that Brcko had the opportunity to become "a symbol for the rest of the country" and to show that it is "truly possible to create a multiethnic democracy" in Bosnia Herzegovina.
"I am aware of the history. I know the obstacles", he said (it will be recalled that the status of Brcko was left open by the Dayton Agreements which put an end to the war in Bosnia in 1995). He added, however, recalling that the EU would contribute EUR 6.5 million to development of the region and EUR 1.3 million for the construction of an "interstate" Brcko bridge: "Look at the potential. Look, for instance, at your powerful Sava River and the commercial possibilities it can offer". Today, continued Chris Patten, "I speak to you as an itinerant European Commissioner, but in a former life I was the last Governor of Hong Kong, one of the world's most powerful economies, created and sustained on a speck of land on the Chinese coast by the sheer will power and energy of its people. So I know better than most what human talent and drive and creativity can achieve if people have the determination to apply them."