The Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism is in complete secrecy and without any consultation with interested parties, and above all without operators of the system, which are implementing  on the ground for the fifth year the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste (Official Gazette of FBiH no. 88/11 and no. 28/13) and fulfill all the obligations that it prescribes, published Regulations on termination of the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste (Official Gazette of FBiH No. 08/16). With this Ordinance the Ministry practically  abolished the system operator and all activities related to packaging and packaging waste reversed to the Environmental Protection Fund of the Federation.

Although, according to the laws of BiH and FBiH, as well as the Aarhus Convention signed by the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ministry was obliged to hold a public debate and hear the views of interested parties and do a comprehensive analysis of the application of the Ordinance from 2012 until today, the Ministry has missed all mentioned above, and fast-track issued Ordinance.

By publishing this Ordinance, the Regulation on packaging and packaging waste (Official Gazette of FBiH No. 88/11 and 28/13) is stopped. In addition, operators of the system are instructed to switch all its assets, including any unspent funds from the account to the Environmental Protection Fund FBiH for which the Ministry will form a special commission.

Taking into account the numerous errors made by the Ministry issuing these regulations, as well as its illegality and the fact that his application would require a series of violations of the laws in the Federation, Ekopak will take all legal actions to protect its business and to protect the interests of manufacturers, fillers, importers , distributors and merchants  to pay the lowest sustainable benefits and that these benefits responsibly spend for the purposes for which they are intended: the establishment of a long-term, transparent and efficient system of separate collection and recycling of packaging waste, according to the best European practices.

Rules on termination of the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste (Official Gazette of FBiH no. 8/16) can be downloaded here.