Meeting in the Federal Ministry of Tourism and Environment
On 28 August 2012, Ekopak representatives held a meeting in the Federal Ministry of Tourism and Environment. Other than by Minister Branka Đurić and her advisers, the meeting was attended by representative of the Environmental Fund of FB&H, Tatjana Kapetanović and direcor of Federal Administration for Inspection Issues, Ibrahim Tirak.
Subject of the meeting was implementation of Ordinance on Packaging and Packaging Waste, published on 28 December 2011, that was put in force on 04 January 2012. According to the Ordinance, all economic subjects that place packaging or packaging products on the teritorry of Federation of B&H have the legal responsibility to join the system and pay packaging fees. Ekopak, first authorized system operator, and the Environmental Fund have informed the meeting participants about economic subjects that fulfill their legal responsibilities by either transferring their responsibilities to Ekopak or by paying packaging fees to the Fund. The meeting participants agreed that, in accordance with the Ordinance, there is no third way of fulfilling this legal responsibility. Not joining the system does not represent adjournment of legal responsiblities, since they are in force since January 2012. Any further adjournment represents the accumulation of the responsibilities. The interest of all economic subjects is to join the system and regularly fulfill legal responsibilities.
Furhtermore, one of the subjects of the meeting was improvement of the existing state of the packaging waste management system, as well as raising awareness of economic subjects- legal obligors- on the importance of joining the system and the importance of implementation of the Ordinance on Packaging and Packaging Waste.
In order to introduce the Ordinance to economic subjects, Federal Ministry of Tourism and Environmnet is planning to organize educational activities with the focus on education of inspection officers, in order to control the situation in the field in the most efficient way.
The Federal Ministry also plans to work on promotion of the Ordinance and the responsibilities it defines.
