Paris, 4 april 2006: A delegation of the WEU Assembly’s Committee for Parliamentary and Public Relations chaired by Lord Russell Johnston (United Kingdom, Liberal Group) visited Sarajevo from 22-24 March 2006 to monitor the European Union’s Althea Mission and complete its study of the general public’s perception of action taken under the ESDP. Having concluded in its report on “Parliaments and the Althea Mission”, submitted to the Assembly’s December 2005 plenary session, that scrutiny of that military mission by the national parliaments of EU member states was scant and to a degree disappointing, the Rapporteur, Milos Budin (Italy, Socialist Group) took a close look at the reaction of local public opinion to military intervention by the European Union and the extent of public confidence in such operations. As well as holding discussions with parliamentarians, the delegation met the Minister for Security, Barisa Colak and the Commander of the European forces (EUFOR), General Gian Marco Chiarini.

It was clear from the joint meetings held with members of the Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees of both houses of the Bosnia and Herzegovinan parliament and with the Committee on European Integration that no parliamentary debate had ever taken place on the Althea mission. This was already regarded as belonging to a past era and as having accomplished its general supervisory role at the time negotiations over the country’s democratic institutions were taking place among representatives of the three ethnic communities in conflict. The parliamentarians and the government, currently involved in many reforms internally saw no relevance in mounting any challenge to a foreign troop presence accepted as the automatic follow-on from the NATO mission, with little differentiation between the two. All, however, expressed their opposition to the army being used for public order tasks and were emphatic that this should once again be the exclusive province of the police.

The Rapporteur said that there were divergent views within the forces that made up Althea on the possibilities of involving the military in policing. He made clear, however, that in the view of Europeans there is still the need for a fairly large military mission to ensure a stable and secure environment for political integration of the different ethnic groups, all too often engaged in protecting their own interests rather than promoting the development of a stable and viable country.

Invited journalists made out a similar case, focusing attention on the balance that had to be struck between the three communities concerned, while students and researchers challenged the views of the politicians, demanding less bargaining behind the scenes, less bureaucracy, a more liberal economy and open borders.

For Rapporteur, Milos Budin, it was clear that the upcoming generations were strongly inclined towards European integration and that in their view security problems were best dealt with by NATO. They looked to the European Union for more specific changes of practical consequence for the future: economic reform, investment and the abolition of visas.

The Rapporteur’s impression was therefore that the EU’s role in the security of the region had not contributed as much as might be hoped towards enhancing the way in which the ESDP was perceived by the public at large. The public had a low awareness of the ESDP and of the link that existed between security and social and economic development. Consideration therefore needed to be given to the very small amount of information released about joint military actions. According to the views expressed in Sarajevo, the main European Union message being conveyed was of building an area of economic and social development which the overwhelming majority of Bosnians and the inhabitants of other Balkan countries wanted to join as soon as possible.