BiH only Balkan country not participating in World Organisation for Animal Health campaign

Maja Gasal-Vražalica, DF MP in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, sent a question to the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Mirko Šarović, asking whether he was aware of the fact that the Director of the Veterinary Office of BiH refused to participate in the campaign of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and that due to this refusal, Bosnia and Herzegovina will be the only country in the Balkans not to start the campaign, reports the Patria news agency.

- By doing so, Bosnia and Herzegovina sent a very bad signal to the European Union, and with this act showed its citizens that Bosnia and Herzegovina has no problems with stray dogs – said Gasal-Vražalica.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations states that it was noted that the Veterinary Office of BiH never explicitly refused to participate in the mentioned campaign.

- We emphasize that the campaign is implemented through the Regional Animal Welfare Centre for the Balkans (RAWC), which is a non-governmental organisation, so the Veterinary Office of BiH, as stated in their response to the Ministry, wanted to obtain more information about the campaign itself in this case, given that one of the requirements was to place the logo of the Veterinary Office, which is one of the competent authorities in BiH in this field and which has no signed agreement or cooperation protocol with this organisation, next to the logo of the mentioned organisation on the promotional material printed for this purpose – say the Ministry.

In addition to the above, the Veterinary Office of BiH is not officially informed in any way about the work of this organisation, nor does it participate in its work.

- In order to gather more information about the campaign itself, the Veterinary Office of BiH also held consultations with competent authorities, namely the Veterinary Administrations in neighbouring countries, and received information that in some neighbouring countries as well, their competent authorities are not directly involved in this campaign and that all activity in this case is carried out through educational institutions – state the Ministry.

Furthermore, the Ministry points out that the OIE stated in its letter sent to the Director of the Veterinary Office of BiH on January 4, 2016, that the participation of each country in this campaign is exclusively on a voluntary basis and that it can depend on the current activities, plans and resources of each individual country.

- Regardless of the foregoing, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations remains committed to full cooperation with the World Organisation for Animal Health and supports all activities aimed at improving and protecting animal health, as well as the full implementation of domestic legislation in this area – emphasize the Ministry.