Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

22/4/15 – Serbian situation update.

The situation regarding the ‘new kill’ proposals being put forward by the Serbian government, which they have been hoping to introduce during May; is obviously changing and updating on an almost daily basis.

Today (22/4), Mark made a telephone conversation to the EU Enlargement Commission (one of many over the past few months) in Brussels to ask when, if ever, he will be getting a written response to his letter of 22^nd February 2015.  Read the original letter via this ref:

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/commissioner-hahn-sav-post-version.doc

Mark was in conversation with the Commission Member of Cabinet, Mr. Kyriacos Charalambous, who is partly responsible for Serbian EU membership.

The conversation continued for quite some time, and the eventual outcome was that it transpired the EU Commission will not actually be writing back to Mark himself.  Instead, they wrongly assumed that the letter from Keith Taylor MEP (two days earlier than Mark’s) on 19th of February  –  https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/letter-to-commissioner-hahn-serbia-and-bosnia-stray-animal-welfare-19-feb-2015-1.pdf  ;

and the letter from Mark himself on 22^nd of February  https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/commissioner-hahn-sav-post-version.doc

were, in their opinion, basically the same thing; and as such needed just one response from them.

This response from Commissioner Hahn was thus sent directly to Keith Taylor MEP, and titled ‘Honorable Member’; addressed only to Keith himself and nobody else, the content of which you can see directly below.

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/stray-dogs-in-serbia-and-bosnia-and-herzegovina_response-from-commission_20-03-2015.pdf

We would always argue that in no way were the letters of Keith and Mark identical, and we still feel that each letter should have been acted on and responded to as individual issues by the EU Commission.  Commissioner Hahn and the Enlargement Commission for example; did not even touch on the many animal fighting video links which were provided in Mark’s letter and Mark’s letter only.  Video evidence that the Serbian government and police should have acted on years or months ago – and here we are now with the EU Commission further supporting the Serbian government with their utter ignorance and disrespect of what the videos actually show.  The Commission should run the issues, not give in and do what the Serbian government does and does not want to do.

Just for the record, as this link is being sent back to the EU Head of Cabinet; we repeat a few of the video links which were supplied ONLY in Mark’s original letter; not that of Keith Taylors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmAljUem_8g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAPAzp8E6S0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCIFzA-mK4o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE9l-cm64hU

People involved in this animal abuse can be clearly seen in the videos; along with the name of the person who posted them onto Youtube in the first place – Jovica Vidovic.

So why has no action been taken by the Serbian government and police to enforce ‘the rule of law’ we ask ? – something the EU Commission seems unable to pick up on; and also, why are the EU Enlargement Commission waffling on with excuses to us that they have fully responded about things in the reply to Keith Taylor, when the actual reality is that the issues of the videos raised by Mark specifically do not even get a hearing at the EU Commission !!

So we are now left in the situation where the EU Enlargement Commission have failed to respond directly back to Mark regarding his letter to them of 22^nd of February 2015. In the telephone conversation on 22/4, Mark did point out to the Member of Cabinet that a fundamental requirement of any EU accession state is ensuring that any new state seeking EU membership should be fully enforcing ‘the rule of law’ within its own country – and this should be proven to the EU.  So we ask again, where is the action being taken by either serbia or the EU Commission regarding the videos above ?

Mark also pointed out to the Commission that despite rulings from the Serbian Constitutional Court in 2005 saying that stray animals must not be killed; but instead controlled by other means,  https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2010/01/25/serbia-constitutional-court-of-serbia-says-that-the-killing-of-stray-dogs-and-cats-in-serbia-is-forbidden-from-02102005/  the Serbian government has ignored the rulings of its own national Constitutional Court and continued to round up and kill stray animals for at least the last 10 years.

In the opinion of SAV and many others, it was made clear by Mark today (22/4) to the EU Commission that the Serbian government has  been ignoring the requirements of the Serbian Constitutional Court for the past 10 years is not enforcing the rule of law within Serbia.

Mark was ‘verbally assured’ by the EU member of Cabinet, that the EU is working hard to ensure that the ‘rules of law’ are enforced throughout Serbia before it is given EU membership. Mark pointed out that in his opinion and that of many others involved with animal welfare in Serbia, that these new proposals for ‘quicker killings’  of stray animals which are currently being presented by the Serbian government are simply a way of (as it has been said) “cleaning up the streets in order to Fast Track Serbia’s EU membership”.  This was denied by the EU Commission when suggested to them.

Fed up with no action from the EU; Mark closed the conversation with the EU by informing them he had little faith in their current actions; asking them to ensure that the Serbian government did NOT continue with their new kill proposals for May 2015, and reminded the EU that we (and many other EU animal welfare groups) will be watching and reporting on every event which takes place for Serbian animals over the coming months.

If the Member of Cabinet at the EU did not get the message today that they need to act; and act positively and quickly in the next few weeks; then it has to be asked exactly what one has to do with the EU to simply get a message through to them !!

And then we wonder why so many people in the UK (for example) want to get out of the EU ! – with actions like theirs is it any wonder people want to move to an authority that does not continually drag its heels.

So, we have been busy behind the scenes.  This is the latest of all the events but we will continue to keep you updated as always when we feel it is time to do so.  And EU Commission; we are watching your actions (or lack of) very closely.

We dont want a ‘Romania 2’ when Serbia is allowed into the EU.  Sort It Now.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, DOCUMENTS, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, LETTERS, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering), SERBIA (Central Serbia: Capital - Belgrade) and (Serbia, The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE |