The EU Special Representative is the lynchpin in the European Union’s presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina ensuring a coordinated and coherent EU approach to building self-sustaining peace and stability by assisting the country move beyond peace implementation towards European integration.

The EU Special Representative is also the High Representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a mandate to oversee implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the December 1995 accord ending close to four years of war.

The EU Special Representative’s mandate is derived from the European Union’s policy objectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These include, in particular, helping achieve progress in implementing the Dayton Peace Agreement as well as in the Stabilisation and Association Process, the process by which Bosnia and Herzegovina moves towards the European Union.

The ultimate aim is to help Bosnia and Herzegovina evolve into a stable, viable, peaceful and multiethnic country, cooperating peacefully with its neighbours and irreversibly on track towards EU membership.

The EU Special Representative reports to the Council of the European Union, the inter-governmental body representing the 27 EU member states, through the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary-General of the Council.