A statement issued after a meeting of the PIC Steering Board in Sarajevo states that the reform of the Bosnian Constitution "is clearly a headline issue as a functional State is crucial for this country"s future in Europe".
The PIC Steering Board expressed a firm wish that Bosnia-Herzegovina's newly elected politicians build on the willingness expressed in April and resume quickly the process of constitutional reform.
Leaders of four influential political parties which won significant support of the electorate in general elections last weekend said on the national TV network on Tuesday that they were willing to start discussing again and adopting the previously agreed set of constitutional reforms.
The politicians in question were Milorad Dodik of the Party of Independent Social Democrats, Sulejman Tihic of the Party of Democratic Action, Zlatko Lagumdzija of the Social Democratic Party, and Dragan Covic of the Croatian Democratic Union of BiH.
Current estimates show that in the new House of Representatives those parties could have enough votes to support the previously proposed constitutional changes, and this time the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina of Haris Silajdzic and the HDZ 1990 would not be able to veto the vote.
The Steering Board welcomed the positive comments made by leading politicians about taking this reform forward.
It recalled that the proposed set of constitutional reforms had already received strong support from the international community and that its adoption would lay the foundations for a further process of constitutional reform to create a better institutional framework needed for Bosnia-Herzegovina on its way to Europe.