EU Council Head Honours Srebrenica Victims

"Today we commemorate the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica. We pay tribute to all the victims and their families. And to those who still have no confirmation of the fate of their loved ones. I am with you. Europe is with you. We will not rest until justice is served", Michel said in a statement.

The EU official emphasised the need to ensure peace and a stable future for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the whole Balkan region, which suffered from bloody conflicts in the 1990s.

"Today, we condemn the genocide at Srebrenica. We must remain vigilant and challenge hatred and intolerance, in Europe, and in your country. Now is the time to overcome the dark legacy of the past. The EU is the greatest peace and reconciliation project ever. From the ashes of World War Two, the Union has shown what can be achieved when peoples reconcile and come together", Michel noted.

At the same time, Britain's Prince Charles has also honoured the memory of the Srebrenica victims.

"The terrible events of July 1995 confirmed as genocide by international courts are a dreadful stain on our collective conscience. ... By remembering the pain of the past and learning its lessons we can together resolve that it must never happen again", Prince Charles said in a video address posted on Twitter by Matt Fields, the UK ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The massacre in Srebrenica, a town in western Bosnia that lies close to the Serbian border, was staged by Bosnian Serbs in July 1995 and left more than 8,000 Bosniaks dead.

The tragedy is one of the episodes of the Yugoslav Wars, which raged on the territory of the dissolved Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at the end of the 20th century.