Statement by High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell and Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi on the 27th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide
On Sunday 10 July, High Representative/Vice-President, Josep Borrell, and Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, issued a joint statement ahead of the commemoration of the 27th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, outlining that “We honour for the 27th year the memory of all victims and of all those still missing of the genocide of Srebrenica. We stand together, in grief, with their relatives and friends who survived the genocide. However, still today we cannot take peace for granted. Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine has brought back a brutal war to our continent. The mass killings and war crimes we see in Ukraine bring back vivid memories of those witnessed in the war in the Western Balkans in the 1990s. (…) As we see the security and stability of Europe and the international rules-based order profoundly shaken, we are reminded of the need to stand up to defend peace, human dignity and universal values. (…) There is no place in Europe for genocide denial, revisionism, and glorification of war criminals. (…) The European Union was built as a common peace project and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s future lies within the European Union. This will however require all the country’s leaders working to put peace, reconciliation, mutual understanding and dialogue at the top of their agenda, and engage on the EU reform agenda.” You can read the full statement here.