Guest presenters:

- Mrs. Branka Đurić, Federal Minister of Tourism and Environment
- Mr. Edin Terzić, Minister Adviser to Federal Minister of Tourism and Environment
- Mrs. Azra bašić, Expert Associate in Federal Ministry of Tourism and Environment
- Mr. Vladimir Randaček, First Secretary and Head of Commercial and Economic Department of the embassy of the Czech Republic
- Mr. Stevan Vujasinović, Sales Manager of Sekopak
- Mrs. Dragica Bagarić, General Manager of Eko Ozra 
- Mr. Gregor Cerar, longterm member of SB of Slopak
- Mr. Iko Brdaroski, Customer Care Manager of Pakomak
- Mrs. Lidija Perić, Sarajevski Kiseljak 

While addressing participants and guests, Minister Đurić reminded that practice and experience of the EU countries were used in the process of creating the Federal Ordinance, especially Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia and the Czech Republic. The Federal Ministry defined legal framework that will enable establishment of system in the way that will not result with higher prices of packaged products. On the other hand, the aim is to establish longterm, sustainable system of packaging waste management.

Special attention of the conference was to inform participants about the experience and current situation in the regional countries in segment of packaging waste management, costs and effects of establishing system of packaging waste management.

As emphasized in the presentation of Mr. Edin Terzić, Minister Adviser to Federal Minister of Tourism and Environment, the goal is to define the entire cycle of packaging waste management in a systematic way; not just in the administrative sense but in the sustainable sense as well, thus enabling those that have the legal
responsiblity to dispose their waste to do so in the most economic way for both producers and consumers. The key message of Mr. Terzić's presentation was that legal responsibilities for producers, importers, fillers and merchants are in force since January 2012 and that they cannot be avoided, irrespective of the date of joining the system (through the Environment Protection Fund or Ekopak- authorized system operator).

Mr. Zoran Rifelj, Expert Sales Associate of Ekopak, introduced participants with the business principles of Ekopak and principles of system functioning.  As stressed in his presentation, the interest of packaging economy is not only fulfilment of legal responsibilities but also a sustainable system operator that will enable transparent fulfillment of legal responsibilities with the lowest minimum costs and minimum impact of consumer
prices of packaged goods.

In his speech, Mr. Ibrahim Tirak informed participants about the future activities of Federal Administration of Inspection Issues related to implementation of the Federal Ordinance. He emphasized that soon first inspection controls are planned in order to check inclusion of economic subjects to the system.

Through his presentation „Experience in establishing packaging waste management system in Slovenia (2002-2012), Mr. Cerar stressed that the first five years of system functioning were successful while the next five years were, due to competition, less successful. This was also the case because relevant ministry that did not
define criteria for system operator.

In his presentation „Implementation of Law on Packaging and Packaging Waste- Transfer of responsibilities to authorized operator“, Mr. Vujasinović presented very good results of Sekopak in the last two years, packaging waste management system in Serbia, ways of reporting on amount of packaging placed on the market, as well as ways of joining the system. Mr. Vujasinović presented the issue of disloyal competition.

As the representative of Pakomak, Mr. Iko Brdaroski presented „Achieved results in 2012 and expected results for 2013“. In 2011, Pakomak focused on B2B and B2C activities an. Like Sekopak, Pakomak too is dealing with disloyal competition, that influences the system functioning.

Mrs. Bagarić, General Manager of Eko Ozra, presented deposit system, the only system of that type established in the region. Due to interest of packaging economy and efforts to avoid legal responsibilities, great problem remains the lack of partner relationship with Ministry of Environment, that only defined legal responsibilities and high packaging fees. Because of the unique and unrecognizable system in Europe, Croatia will face great problems if the legislative change does not occur by next year, when it is planned for Croatia
to join the EU.

Upon the end of presentations, General Manager of Ekopak, Mrs. Amela Hrbat, opened the discussion and invited all the legal obligors to join the system of packaging waste management through Ekopak and informed the participants that Ekopak remains availble to all legal obligors. She emphasized that regulating this area is not some kind of experiment of local character. The Ordinance on Packaging and Packaging Waste of FB&H represents a step forward in adjusting national legislative with the EU legislative and implementation of international responsibilities and requests that are defined by Directive on Packaging and
Packaging Waste (94/62/EC).

Conclusions from the conference can be downloaded here.