The Council of Ministers of B&H discussed yesterday the information related to the issue of export of milk from B&H to the EU and reached certain conclusions.
Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of the Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of B&H, Mirko Sarovic said at the press conference after the session of the Council, that the meeting of the delegation of the Ministry and the State Veterinary Office of B&H with representatives of the relevant institutions in Brussels was held two days ago.
“A proposal with which delegation arrived was for us to shorten the deadline for solving an appeal of Croatia from 16th September. That is the basic positive success“, said Minister Sarovic, adding that they got assurances that the meeting of the relevant Committee will probably occur on 9th September.
Minister Sarovic said that the BH delegation used an opportunity to get additional information related to the appeal of Croatia itself, According to his words, appeal is related to the list of four export objects, four dairy plants, with an opinion of Croatia that B&H still does not met conditions for the export of milk, and that was necessary, before adding to the export list, for the relevant inspection body that has a headquarter in Dublin to come to B&H once more and inspect objects that were registered for export.
“That is what writes in written appeal of Croatia, But, in a talk with Croatian representatives, I want to say that basically, reasons are different. In the first place, dissatisfaction of the Croatian side with the slowness in the adaptation of SSP, i.e. an additional protocol between the EU and B&H where the Croatian side has an interest. I guess, and I am now expressing my opinion that one of the reason is a fear of the competitiveness of BH milk at the Croatian market“, said Minister Sarovic.
He stated that in previous days, there were proposals by institutions, individuals and associations where they requested taking appropriate measures.
“Yesterday, the Council of Ministers discussed the information in which all facts related to this case in the last seven days were presented. One of conclusion from yesterday’s session was that the Ministry of the Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, depending on the result of the work of the Committee on the appeal of the Croatian side, will propose appropriate measures to the Council of Ministers“, said Sarovic adding that B&H will wait for this result.
He underlined that one month ago, when B&H met conditions for the export of potato to the EU, one country member of the EU, whose name was not published, also submitted an appeal for B&H not to be allowed to export the potato to the EU, but other members haven’t accepted that.
He expressed his confidence that the same will happened this time as well.
“My proposal for numerous requests addressed to the Ministry and other institutions to introduce blockades, to close borders, is to buy domestic milk“, said Sarovic.
When asked whether Croatia submitted an appeal outside the deadline, Minister Sarovic said: “I think that Croatia is late at least 10 days, but that is a question for the European Commission“.
(Source: akta.ba)