As BiH moves from the era of Dayton onto the road to Brussels, the requirements of EU accession and the best practices of EU business and public life have begun to serve as a useful template for reform and progress in BiH.

The EU itself has assumed a leading position in BiH’s international engagement – not to the exclusion of other partners, but through a naturally evolving relationship based on BiH’s aspiration to obtain EU membership.

In July 2004, the EU decided to conduct a military operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Operation Althea – to follow on from SFOR. The EU Operation will be part of a coherent EU approach. It will add in a significant way to the EU’s political engagement, its assistance programmes, and its ongoing police and monitoring missions. The EU is already working through the EU Police Mission to strengthen the rule of law in BiH, especially in fighting organised crime.

The EU Special Representative plays a central a role in promoting overall EU political co-ordination in BIH, and offering political guidance to the EUFOR Commander.

The European Union Special Representative (EUSR) for Bosnia and Herzegovina represents the Council of the European Union, and reports to the Council through the Secretary-General and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Miroslav Lajčák was named by the Council of the European Union as the European Union Special Representation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUSR), 18 June 2007. He took up his duties as EUSR when he assumed the position of the International Community's High Representative for BiH, 1 July 2007.