Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

To:

johannes.hahn@ec.europa.eu,

delegation-serbia@eeas.europa.eu,
michael.karnitschnig@ec.europa.eu,
kyriacos.charalambous@ec.europa.eu,
predsednikvlade@gov.rs,
predstavkegradjana@predsednik.rs,
kabinet@eu.rs,
mediji@predsednik.rs,
press@predsednik.rs

Dear Sirs,

We are submitting a complaint regarding the procedure for the passing
of amendments to the Animal Welfare Act conducted by the Ministry of
Agriculture and Environmental Protection, Veterinary Directorate.

In the previous period, due to the same problem, we addressed the
Government of the Republic of Serbia but without any success.

The reasons for our appeal and filing the complaint are as follows:

1.      Because we have the evidence that the Ministry of Agriculture
intends to proceed with the violation of the Aarhus Convention and the
Law on ratification of that Convention, because it formed a working
group which made draft amendments to the Animal Welfare Law without the participation of the concerned public, and only after we learned what they are doing, they have subsequently included part of the interested public. Behind the scene, they have a plan and that is to
either directly or through amendments arranged with certain members of the National Assembly of RS – whether with the deputies of the ruling coalition, or with some MPs of the opposition – who will, if
necessary, present the amendments in the form they agreed with the
Veterinary Directorate and Forest Administration, before the National
Assembly (people who work in both administrations of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Environmental Protection belong to the ruling
coalition as well), and then with the majority of votes, the ruling
coalition in the National Assembly will vote the amendments with no
problems. This way, the draft will certainly have the content and form
proposed by the Ministry, regardless of the suggestions of the
concerned public; and no matter if the proposals of interested public
(OCDs) are better or not, the suggestions of the concerned public will
definitely be disregarded, since this Ministry already decided to work
this way, and will only present a false image that everything is done
according to the Aarhus Convention.

2.      Because so far the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia has not enforced the following
Laws: Veterinary Act, the Animal Welfare Act, the Nature Protection
Act, the Law on Wildlife and Hunting, but instead has tolerated
dereliction or completely formal action or even inaction of the
Inspection Service of the Veterinary Directorate and Forest
Administration, which to date have not acted according to these laws,
but rather protected the following stakeholders: veterinarians and
hunters with whom the police cooperates. In many cases the president
of the Hunting Association is at the same time the Chief of police in
that area, and almost all police officers or majority, are hunters as
well, so the police protects the interests of hunters in every way,
even when they commit crimes. Inspections of the Forest Administration and Veterinary Directorate cooperate with hunters in everything, just like they cooperate with local governments in violation of the law, all under the excuse that towns are poor, that they have to,
primarily, solve the issues concerning the welfare of people, that the
welfare of animals is not a priority to them and that the republic
inspections do not have jurisdiction over the cities. In contrary, our
law precisely states that the Ministry of Agriculture and
Environmental Protection, through the Republic Inspections, must
supervise the applying of the aforementioned laws and all by-laws
stemming from them.

3.      This way, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental
Protection leads Serbia into a situation in which this country
violates the Copenhagen and Lisbon criteria, because it does not apply
its own laws and because the procedure for development and adoption of new laws and amendments to existing laws are being implemented in the interests of the ruling party, at the expense of general and public
interest. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental
Protection with all above mentioned actions violates the Serbian
Constitution and thereby human rights of Serbian citizens under the
guise of false democracy, and cherishes anarchy and corruption in the
area of life which is in the competence of the Ministry of Agriculture
and Environmental Protection. We strongly oppose all of this and our
opposition is in general and public interest of Serbia.

4.      We oppose the harmful draft amendments to the Animal Welfare
Act itself. The draft was secretly made by a working group of the
Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, without the
participation of OCDs, and the heads of Veterinary Directorate and
Forests Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture and
Environmental Protection plan to counteract our subsequent involvement by the above-mentioned amendments, according to their initial plan, which brings back to our lives the regulation from 1991, which even then proved to be more backward and has led to the realization of a large number of failed investments and impoverishment of Serbia, all in the interest of the local rich people in Serbia, whose wealth is mostly created, not as a result of quality and quantity of their work, but as a result of bribery of government, and it exists in all levels of the horizontally and vertically networked corruption in the Serbian government, both in the area that is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, as well as in the areas of police, inspection and public prosecutor’s offices.

—————————————

Pritužba

Poštovana gospodo komisioneri i gospodine Predsedniče Vlade Srbije

Pritužujemo se vama iz razloga sto:

1. Postoje dokazi da Ministarstvo poljoprivrede ima nameru nastaviti s
kršenjem Aarhuske Konvencije i Zakona o ratifikaciji te Konvencije,
jer je oformilo radnu grupu koja je bez učešća zainteresovane javnosti
napravila  Nacrt Izmena i dopuna Zakona o dobrobiti životinja i tek
nakon što smo mi saznali da to rade, naknadno je uključila deo
zainteresovane javnosti, ali zakulisno ima plan A – da ili direktno
ili putem amandmana po dogovoru s nekim poslanicima Narodne Skupštine
RS, bilo s poslanicima vladajuće  koalicije bilo s nekim poslanicima
opozicije, koji će po potrebi izneti amandmane u formi u kojoj se
dogovore s Upravom za veterinu i Upravom za šume, pred  Narodnu
Skupštinu. Zatim će većinom glasova, vladajuća koalicija u Narodnoj
Skupštini (vladajućoj koaliciji pripadaju i ljudi koji rade u
Ministartsvu poljoprivrede i zaštite životne sredine u ove dve uprave)
izglasati amandmane bez problema, tako da će svakako taj Nacrt imati
sadržaj i formu koju su mu predvideli u tom Ministartsvu, bez obzira
na predloge  zainteresovane javnosti i bez obzira koliko predlozi
zainteresovane javnosti (OCDs) budu bolji ili ne, svakako će predlozi
zainteresovane javnosti otpasti po planu A ovog Ministarstva, a ostaće
samo lažna slika da se postupa po Aarhuskoj Konvenciji.

2. Ministarstvo poljoprivrede i zaštite životne sredine RS do danas
nije primenjivalo: Zakon o veterinarstvu, Zakon o dobrobiti životinja,
Zakon o zaštiti prirode, Zakon o divljači i lovstvu – nego je
tolerisalo nesavestan rad ili potpuno formalno činjenje ili čak
nečinjenje, inspekcijske službe Uprave za veterinu i Uprave za šume,
koje do danas nisu postupale po ovim zakonima nego su štitile sledeće
interesne grupe: veterinare i lovce s kojima bezgranično saradjuje
policija (u mnogo slučajeva predsednik lovačkog udruženja je
istovremeno i načelnik policije u tom području, a skoro svi policajci
ili većina, su ujedno i lovci, tako policija štiti interese lovaca na
svaki način i onda kada oni čine krivična dela i prekršajna dela.
Inspekcije Uprave za šume i Uprave za veterinu saradjuju u svemu sa
lovcima, kao što saradjuju i sa gradskim upravama u kršenju zakona, uz
izgovor da su gradovi siromašni, da prvenstveno rešavaju dobrobit
ljudi a da im dobrobit životinja nije prioritet i da republičke
inspekcije nemaju intervencije nad gradovima, a  zakon upravo nalaže
da Ministarstvo poljoprivrede i zaštite životne sredine, putem
republičke inspekcije, vrši nadzor nad primenjivanjem pomenutih zakona
i svih podzakonskih akata koji proizilaze iz gore pomenutih zakona .

3. Na ovaj način Ministarstvo poljoprivrede i zaštite životne sredine
dovodi Srbiju u situaciju da ova država krši Kopenhagenske i
Lisabonske Kriterijume, jer ne primenjuje sopstvene zakone i jer
proceduru izrade i usvajanja novih zakona i izmena zakona sprovodi u
interesu vladajuće stranke a na štetu opšteg i javnog interesa. Pored
toga, Ministarstvo poljoprivrede i zaštite životne sredine svim napred
navedenim radnjama krši i Ustav Srbije a time i ljudska prava gradjana
Srbije, pod plaštom lažne demokratije i ovde neguje anariju i
korupciju u oblasti života koja je u kompetenciji Ministarstva
poljoprivrede i zaštite životne sredine .
Svemu ovome mi se oštro protivimo i naše protivljenje je u opštem i
javnom interesu Srbije .

4. Protivimo se i samom štetnom Nacrtu Izmena i dopuna zakona o
dobrobiti životinja. Nacrt je napravila radna grupa Ministarstva
poljoprivrede i zaštite životne sredine, tajno, bez učešća OCDs, a
naše naknadno uključenje čelnici Uprave za veterinu i Uprave za šume
Ministarstva poljoprivrede i zaštite životne sredine, imaju plan
neutralisati gore pomenutim amandmanima, po planu A a koji vraća u
naše živote regulativu iz 1991. godine i pre tog vremena. Ovo se
pokazalo nazadnim još tada i dovelo do realizacije velikog broja
promašenih investicija i do osiromašenja Srbije, sve u interesu
lokalnih bogataša u Srbiji, čija imovima je većinom nastala, ne kao
rezultat kvaliteta i kvantiteta njihovog rada, nego kao rezultat
podmićivanja vlasti. Na zalost, to i dalje postoji na svim nivoima,
horizontalno i vertikalno umrežene korupcije, kako u oblasti koja je u
ingerenciji Ministarstva poljoprivrede i zaštite životne sredine, tako
i u oblasti rada policije, inspekcije i javnih tužilaštava .

U potpisu i u nadi da cete odreagovati pozitivno i u skladu sa
zakonskim odredbama,

Yunited For Animal Protection
Great Britain

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, DOCUMENTS, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, LETTERS, The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE |