Speech by the Head of EU Delegation and EU Special Representative in BiH, Ambassador Luigi Soreca & by the Young European Ambassador Ena Porča at the Europe Day 2025 Reception

Speech by the Head of EU Delegation and EU Special Representative in Bi H, Ambassador Luigi Soreca Dear guests,Good evening, and thank you for joining us to celebrate Europe Day together. This is my first Europe Day in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I have only been living here for eight months, but this is long enough to understand that this is an extraordinary and special place. Not only is this a country blessed with unparalleled landscapes and exceptional cultural heritage. It is also home to many people of remarkable talent, determination, and resilience. Many of the people who it has been an honour to meet are here this evening. I look forward to continuing the exchanges we have begun. I would also like to thank my team at the EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as colleagues from the broader EU family and international community, who have helped me to settle in. This is a complex country, and your support has been invaluable. This is true, in particular, because of the current political climate and the difficult challenges ahead of us. It is precisely because Bosnia and Herzegovina is a complex and challenging country that our shared efforts to bring it closer to a future within the European Union carry such meaning and significance. The European Union was born as a project for peace and cooperation in a continent too often torn apart by conflict. Following the horrors of fascism and the devastation of the Second World War, the European Union’s founders envisioned a...