Brussels, 26/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - Lord Asdown, the EU's special Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH), repeated to the press in Brussels last week, having met the Bosnian authorities, tat BH still had many reforms to undertake, but that, seven years after the war, the situation could be termed a "miracle". As for the sale of arms to Iraq by the company Orao (which has its headquarters in Republika Sprska), Lord Ashdown was very disappointed of the Republic's authorities' report. "It's very far from what we were expecting, the authorities do not seem to understand the seriousness of this affair"., he said.
You may recall that on 1 January 2003, the EU police mission to BH will begin its activities. This mission (see EUROPE of 4/5 November, p.7), will be made up of 512 men, 422 of whom from member states (with a strong contribution from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy) ad 90 from third countries (including candidate countries - except for Malta - Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Canada). The United States is not participating. "As third countries only represent 20% of the force spread over 18 countries, it is possibly difficult to attract Washington's attention to this type of operation", comments a European diplomat. These men will have as mission to help the Bosnian police to bring their practices closer to European standards. "In no case will they have an executory role on the ground", a diplomat stresses. Third countries participating in the mission have had to pay an "entry fee" of 25,000 euro a year, which comes on top of a budget of 38 million euro from 2003 to 2005 (20 million from the CFSP budget, 18 supplied by Member states). "Switzerland and the Czech Republic have announce that they would pay more", another diplomatic source notes. This "entry fee" comes on top of the cost of personnel on the ground that all States pay, that must, notably pay a daily lump sum amount to their staff, which may differ according to country. "We recommended the same sum, or 100 euro a day. Finally it was decided that each country would pay what they want, depending on their means", remarked yet another diplomatic source.