Mr. Kurt Bassuener:

The reason education is in such a parlous state is it is part of the life support system of the ruling system. The Dayton Accords created a ruling elite that is the most stable political class in Europe and the most impervious to change because they have no interest in change. They want to generate the next generation of voters. This is an interest-based system and everybody is a rational actor in it, citizens and politicians included. People know how bad it is and their level of distaste with the political elite is not the problem. They know they are being lied to, robbed, divided against each other and intentionally scared but they are still scared. One is fighting Maslow's pyramid. The one thing external actors can do is take fear out of the equation, which they are legally obligated to do, by maintaining a safe and secure environment. It should be made clear to everybody, politicians and citizens alike, that as long as the Dayton constitution is there, it will be enforced and Bosnia cannot join the club unless it changes because it is too screwed up and the EU has enough screwed up members as it is. That is the reality but there is a false dichotomy between having hard power instruments and the EU. Hard power instruments are a force multiplier and enabler for the EU's soft power; they are not antithetical to it. It is a false theological debate that is often had in Brussels, which is unproductive.

Corruption is usually referred to as if it is an opportunistic infection and if a state has the right laws and institutions, it can deal with it. It is in the institutional DNA of the Dayton system. It was designed to facilitate corruption. That was the point. It was not incidental; it was the reason. It is the main course, not a side order. Corruption cannot be dealt with until the constitutional order is dealt with.

Deputy Crowe referred to agriculture. This is a concrete example of the way the EU could operate. I agree with Deputy Donohoe that the EU must deal with the elected politicians but it does not need to deal with them on their terms. EU representatives should deal with them on their terms. The Bosnian leaders at least profess to want to join the club even though they do not mean it and that gives EU representatives leverage over them rather than the other way round. They should not dance to their tune. Croatia became a candidate in 2005. The Bosnians have seen this coming for seven years and they are this far behind because they were able to play the shell game and avoid responsibility.

It would have been different had there been a single point of contact. The European Commission used to demand that it had an agricultural ministry for its own purposes and thereby ensuring that it had somebody to deal with when it came to discussing the Common Agricultural Policy. It meant that there was a single point to blame if a country let everything slide. Why is there no agricultural ministry, one which the EC does not ask for anymore? It is because it is so politically radioactive. As far as the Republika Srpska is concerned, state competences are evil and it wants to hoard things even if it means letting down its farmers.

Within the existing confines of existing mandates, how could the EU approach this with its delegation on the ground? That is simple. Tell Joe Farmer how many euro he will lose per head of cattle, the amount of hectares of farmland that will be lost, or beehives, because honey was mentioned earlier. The EU should clearly state how much will be lost and who is to blame. It should ask not to be blamed and state that the EU has an open door but its standards must be met. It should also name individual politicians. There is no reason that such steps cannot be taken other than a sense that it is bad manners and it is not the way that things are supposed to work. That is the way things work in Bosnia. If it is made clear that one has a floor through which one cannot drop then one will have civil mobilisation on all of the outstanding issues. If it is made clear that the fear factor cannot be leveraged then the committee would be amazed at how quickly things can move forward across the host of menu items that the EU has. Issue by issue, chapter by chapter and sector by sector, everybody is protecting some kind of racket and everybody knows who is doing what. The committee has a crowbar to open it up and I encourage it do so.

My last point is on what an individual member can do. When he or she visits Bosnia please tell the citizens what it will take for members to be able to sell the reasons for Bosnia joining the EU to his or her constituents. Tell them what a member can say with a straight face. There has been a lot of happy talk and there is a false struggle between being pro-enlargement and being intellectually honest. The only way one can be pro-enlargement without importing problems is to tell the truth to Irish citizens and to Bosnians and I encourage members to do so.