Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today we are discussing an incident concerning a mosque. This mosque was not destroyed in any war. This mosque stood in Banja Luka, where there was no war. It was razed to the ground in 1993, its foundations were torn up, and a car park was built on the site. This mosque was destroyed – like hundreds of other Muslim and Catholic places of worship – on the orders of Karadzic and his henchmen. Not only were these places of worship destroyed; hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats were forced to flee their homes at a time when there was no war in this region, namely between 1991 and 1995. As Johannes Swoboda has already pointed out, the Dayton Agreement has now been in place since late 1995. We never liked this Agreement. It ended the war, but it has not yet brought peace to the region. Six years have now passed, and we have to recognise that Dayton contains few promises and has achieved even less. It has divided the country into two ethnic entities, a mono-ethnic Serb entity, and a Muslim-Croat entity. This situation has proved highly problematical in practice. In essence, we have created an artificial product. Do we really expect Bosnia's inexperienced politicians to cope with this state of affairs today? It is extremely difficult. What's more, we do not always help each entity equally. The numbers of people returning are still too low. Hundreds of thousands of people were expelled, and there are still half a million displaced persons in Bosnia who have not returned home. I think we must appeal to everyone to take action here. The Republika Srpska lags behind the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina with regard to refugee return, and this is obviously one reason for the situation which we witnessed ten days ago in Banja Luka. At the laying of the foundation stone of this ancient mosque, and eight days earlier at the laying of the foundation stone for another mosque in Trebinje, hardliners from the SDS, the Serb nationalists, were yet again able to drum up supporters who interrupted the ceremonies, set fire to buses, and threatened the lives of participants. The President of the Republika Srpska and his government and Prime Minister must make serious efforts to condemn this incident and create an atmosphere which fosters peaceful relations between the communities, which were the norm in this region until 1991. In my view, we should also have no qualms about coupling financial assistance with conditions at last. We made it quite clear to Milorad Dodik, the previous Prime Minister of the Republika Srpska, that he could count on our financial support if he encouraged refugee return. We supported his work when he was in office, yet he did not allow any displaced persons to return. There is now a new government in office, and we really must proceed with caution. We are talking about taxpayers' money here, and we must be sure that it is used to achieve the goals set by the international community and the European Union. Refugees wishing to return must be able to do so. The same naturally applies to the neighbouring region of Croatia as well. In Croatia, there is a law preventing the restitution of property to Serb owners who fled from the region. Admittedly, many Serbs no longer want to return, but their property should at least be restored to them, and they should be given support to enable them to return to – or from – Croatia. We have addressed a number of other issues in our motion as well. In the Muslim-Croat Federation, hardline Croat separatists are also disrupting peaceful relations between the communities and trying to set up a breakaway mini-state in Bosnia-Herzegovina. They will never be successful. The moderates are stronger, and we must give them our support. However, given that the international community has a certain amount of power in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we should not use it arbitrarily to amend an electoral law in a way which discriminates against a specific ethnic group. This simply reinforces the hardliners' cause and increases support for them. I realise that this step is now regretted, but it is important to address this issue so that it does not happen again. I hope that we will do everything possible within the scope of our CARDS programme to ensure that the refugees are able to return to all parts of the region. This is the best contribution we can make to promoting peaceful relations between the communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE