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The High Representative and European Union Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina calls for the social partners to play an increasingly important role in the country's reconstruction process. The scene of Europe's worst violent conflict since World-War Two, this country in the Western Balkans has been pursuing a difficult process of reconciliation and reconstruction during the last eleven years. Now as the international community continues to cut down its presence, local politicians need to shoulder the decisive responsibility, which is not easy to bring about as long as nationalist agendas take the upper hand over economic and social objectives.

Dr Christian Schwarz-Schilling, High Representative and European Union Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, wants to see more involvement by the social partners in the country's affairs. He spoke to a major Conference in Sarajevo on 9 March, where over 150 employers, trade union leaders and others committed themselves to social dialogue and cooperation. The first of its kind in this country which is still struggling to recover from the war and violence more than ten years ago, the conference could mark a certain turning point in moving political emphasis increasingly towards economic and social issues. This is necessary also in preparation of the announced trapping down of international involvement and supervision, which will make local political leaders directly accountable for their decisions. Flanking Dr Schwarz-Schilling is Ms Alexandra Rüdig (left in the picture), Senior Advisor at the OHR and previously project director at UNI Commerce, and Dr Christina Catherine Krause, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Office in Sarajevo.

The authorities should not try to guess what the economic actors want, or even avoid their recommendations. This was the message from the High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling to a major conference in Sarajevo last Friday, which brought together over 150 senior representatives from employers' associations, chambers of commerce, enterprises, trade unions and other economic stakeholders.

- To the representatives of the government, the representatives of employers and the representatives of workers I say: None of you has the capacity to reach your objectives without the full cooperation of the others, the High Representative stated. He called on the government, including the Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Slobodan Puhalac who was present, and the employers and trade unions to establish a "creative and practical dialogue".

Social partners expect the government to move

fast to establish economic and social council

Dr Schwarz-Schilling's appeal was well received by the more than 150 business and trade union representatives who were partly sitting even on the floor and the table corners of the crowded meeting room in central Sarajevo. They are now expecting the government to move fast to create a tripartite economic and social council as a forum for ensuring that the social partners can wield a positive influence on this country, where many politicians from different population groups still have problems in cooperating with each other.

Bosnia and Herzegovina lacks a genuinely common economic space and there is insufficient mobility for business and labour between the two entities, the Federation and the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This not only hampers economic and social developments and the quest for closer relations with the European Union, but is also a destabilising factor for the country and the whole region. More emphasis on the economy and a greater engagement of the social partners is therefore of crucial importance. Particularly the employers need to strengthen their associations in order to enable an effective social dialogue, whilst the trader union movement is quite well organised.

Mr Antonio Peñalosa, General Secretary of the Geneva-based International Organisation of Employers IOE, promised his organisation's support in bringing this about. He underlined the obligations that the fundamental ILO International Labour Conventions give to all governments, and called for rapid action to formalise the already agreed economic and social council. This council will bring together independent employers' associations and trade unions in a dialogue with the authorities, and constitute an important voice for the economic community.

Commerce collective agreement may open way

for sectoral social partners involvement

Commerce may well play an important role in the process, as the first and most genuinely private sector of the economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. UNI Commerce has been working closely with the trade unions and other economic actors in the country all since the Dayton Peace Agreement DPA was concluded in 1996, and has participated in establishing labour relations and a social dialogue for this dynamic enterprise sector.

The trade unions in Bosnia and Herzegovina will play an important role when the economic and social actors build up their influence and participation. The 'Dom Sindikata' in Sarajevo hosts the country's trade union confederation, as the rotating presidency is presently held by Edem Biber. With almost half a million members from both entities and all parts of the country, the trade union movement will have to play a key role in the tripartite economic and social council that will now be established.

Mr Alija Remzo Baksic, who heads the employers' association, underlined the good labour relations that have been established between the social partners' confederations. This was confirmed by Mr Edem Biber, president of the Trade Union Confederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which comprises of the union structures in both entities as well as the Brcko District and counts nearly half a million members.

In his contribution to the conference, Mr Baksic also said that a branch collective agreement for the commerce sector could probably be signed very soon. This was welcomed by commerce trade union president Azra Sehbajraktarevic, who has been engaged in a successful organising campaign supported by UNI Commerce and its Norwegian affiliate Handel og Kontor HK, and also established a social dialogue and labour relations with many employers.

Mr Jan Furstenborg of UNI Commerce, who presented the European social dialogue in the retail and distribution industry, welcomed OHR's initiative to develop the participation of the economic and social actors in both the state-building process and the efforts to revive the ailing economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only when people have jobs and stable incomes can the present instabilities be overcome. Welcoming the positive developments in trying to establish a collective agreement for the commerce sector, he suggested that the social partners be given a possibility to observe the European Social Dialogue for Commerce.

Economic and social development is

hampered by nationalistic agendas

The Sarajevo Conference, which the Office of the High Representative OHR arranged with the support of Germany's Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, consisted of a series of panel discussions which included also representatives of the international community. It was held against a backdrop of politically motivated reluctance of some of the nationalistically oriented political leaders to take any steps which would serve to consolidate the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its structures.

With almost half of its labour force unemployed, Bosnia and Herzegovina must redirect its focus more on economic and social issues. This was the clear message of the business community to the country's political leaders, expressed by employers and trade unions alike at their recent Conference in Sarajevo. One of the important actors is of course the Central Bank, above, with headquarters at the Ulica Marshala Tita, the main street of the capital. What is lacking until now, however, is a channel for the economic actors themselves, the social partners, to make their voice heard. The politicians must now end their obstruction and formalise the Economic and Social Council, as part of taking a serious responsibility for the country's affairs as the international community is trapping down its involvement.

The price for politicians choosing the wrong priorities is paid by ordinary people, workers and their families, who can hardly make ends meet and who don't see much hope for the catastrophic unemployment situation to improve. As long as the political leaders can hide behind the back of the international community, trying to push the necessary decisions over to the desk of the High Representative, this will hardly change. The Sarajevo Conference showed that patience in the business world and among the social partners is already running thin and that they expect a new more constructive and realistic approach from their political leaders.

Political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina

need to take their own responsibility

The employers and the trade unions are prepared also to take their own responsibility, helping to redirect the political agenda towards economic and social issues, which also Dr Schwarz-Schilling expected them to do in his keynote speech to the Conference:

- Complaining that the authorities do not want to play ball, or that the public does not yet understand the proper role of business associations will not solve the problem, the High Representative said.

- If the authorities won’t play ball, you must make them play ball – you must persuade them that they will gain more from listening to you than from ignoring you. If the public has been misinformed then it is up to you to re-inform them.

- If you believe in your right to a say in the economic restructuring of Bosnia and Herzegovina you should be able to persuade the public that exercising that right will deliver benefits to all, he told the participants.

 Mr Schwarz-Schilling stressed that this work must be based on a social dialogue, which includes also the workers and their unions:

- The people who understand what makes an economy work are the same people who understand what makes a business work – this doesn’t just mean employers; it means everyone connected to the successful operation of a business – including managers, workers, and consumers.