13.07.2016. The Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism in the Official Gazette of BiH no. 54/16 issued Ordinance Repealing Ordinance on termination of the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste. This means that the Ministry withdraws Ordinance on termination of the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste, illegal act published on 03.02.2016., and that after more than half a year stalemate, uncertainty and concern, how manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers who are liable to pay fees, so are other participants in the system of collection, recycling and utilization of packaging waste which Ekopak established through a network of more than twenty public utilities and private collectors from all parts of the Federation, and all return to the previous state.

As a basis for the publication of the Ordinance on termination of the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste Ministry of Environment and Tourism  stated decision of the Competition Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina number 06-26-3-007-II/16 of 30.03.2016., decision on a claim of Ekopak, which instructed the Ministry to revoke the application of the Ordinance on the termination of the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste published in the Official Gazette  FBiH no. 8/16 of 03.02.2016.g., because it is preliminary determined that the Ministry violated the provision of Article 4 of the Law on competition BiH in terms of the Ordinance limiting the market in a way that imposes the obligation of the operators of the system to all its obligations including all contracts which the operators have concluded with the other undertakings (polluters and collectors), and the remaining unspent funds, transferre to Public Insitution Environmental Protection Fund FBiH, which directly closes the market and eliminate competition and disables businesses that owned Decision on license for the system operator of packaging waste management.

It is evident that only Ekopak stood up to protect the interests of the packaging economy and the established system of packaging and packaging waste, pointing to the illegal actions of the Ministry, in which we have been exposed to pressure and discredit, in order to our insistence on the implementation of the law minimize and shown as other extreme.

Once again it is proven that the establishment of long-term, transparent and efficient system of packaging and packaging waste is not an experiment of local character, but a complex and long-term process which could only manage a credible and responsible system operator, which has expertise in this field, who professionally and responsibly represent the interests its customers, but also consumers and society as a whole.

All this ultimately means that we continue to work in accordance with the provisions of the old Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste, Official Gazette FBiH no. 88/11 and 28/13.

We invite all manufacturers, importers, distributors and ultimate suppliers who aren't yet included in the system of Ekopak to contact us, in order to strengthen the platform of the economy gathered around Ekopak and to continue acting in the direction in which we started: to develop a sustainable system of packaging and packaging waste legally, expertly, professionally, transparently, to the highest ethical standards and at the lowest sustainable cost, with the least impact on consumer prices and the greatest benefits for the environment in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which will Ekopak persist.

Ordinance Repealing Ordinance on termination of the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste, as well as the decision of the Competition Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be downloaded here.