[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 25 (Monday, June 23, 2003)]
[Page 791]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress on Continuation of the National Emergency With 
Respect to the Western Balkans

June 20, 2003

To the Congress of the United States:

    Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) 
provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, 
prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President 
publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice 
stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the 
anniversary date. Consistent with this provision, I have sent the 
enclosed notice, stating that the Western Balkans emergency is to 
continue in effect beyond June 26, 2003, to the Federal Register for 
publication. The most recent notice continuing this emergency was 
published in the Federal Register on June 25, 2002, 67 Fed. Reg. 42703.
    The crisis constituted by the actions of persons engaged in, or 
assisting, sponsoring, or supporting, (i) extremist violence in the 
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and elsewhere in the Western 
Balkans region, or (ii) acts obstructing implementation of the Dayton 
Accords in Bosnia or United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 of 
June 10, 1999, in Kosovo, that led to the declaration of a national 
emergency on June 26, 2001, has not been resolved. Subsequent to the 
declaration of the national emergency, acts obstructing implementation 
of the Ohrid Framework Agreement of 2001 in the former Yugoslav Republic 
of Macedonia, have also become a concern. All of these actions are 
hostile to U.S. interests and pose a continuing unusual and 
extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the 
United States. For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary 
to continue the national emergency declared with respect to the Western 
Balkans and maintain in force the comprehensive sanctions to respond to 
this threat.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 June 20, 2003.