[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 25 (Monday, June 26, 2006)]
[Page 1214]
[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 22, 2006

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. In accordance with this provision, I have sent the 
enclosed notice to the Federal Register for publication, stating that 
the Western Balkans emergency is to continue in effect beyond June 26, 
2006. The most recent notice continuing this emergency was published in 
the Federal Register on June 24, 2005, 70 FR 36803.
    The crisis constituted by the actions of persons engaged in, or 
assisting, sponsoring, or supporting (i) extremist violence in the 
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, in Executive Order 13219 has not been resolved. Subsequent to the 
declaration of the national emergency, I amended Executive Order 13219 
in Executive Order 13304 of May 28, 2003, to address acts obstructing 
implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement of 2001 in the Republic 
of Macedonia, which have also become a concern. The acts of extremist 
violence and obstructionist activity outlined in Executive Order 13219, 
as amended, 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 22, 2006.

Note: This message was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
June 23.