The Earl of Dundee – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Dundee on 2014-03-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Plenum movement within Bosnia Herzegovina in providing a constructive and peaceful catalyst towards constitutional reform.

Baroness Warsi

The protests and plenums are focussing primarily on socio-economic issues, demonstrating the frustration of the population with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) leaders’ failure to implement reforms on issues which matter most to ordinary Bosnians. The UK views these grievances as being rooted in a wider frustration with the functionality of the state, and as indicative of a broader malaise within BiH, which includes the Constitution. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), visited BiH on 27-28 March, and emphasised to BiH’s leadership the importance of their engaging fully with the population’s legitimate calls for change, which will include broader reforms. The UK has made clear, bilaterally and within the EU, that it stands ready to assist BiH’s leaders in implementing a wide range of changes, should BiH’s leaders demonstrate their commitment to engage fully with protesters, and summon the political will to make reforms.