Twenty Seventh Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer –

High level Plenary Session

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 04-05November 2015

Statement of the Head of Delegation

Honr. Admir Softić, Assistant Minister

Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mr. Chairman,

Ministers, Excellencies,

Distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Delegation of Bosnia and Herzegovina at theTwenty Seventh Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol,would like to use this opportunity to express our highly gratitude to the Government and people of United Arab Emiratesand as well to amazing city of Dubai for their welcomes and for extraordinary hospitality shown to us.
Would like to express the appreciation of my Delegation and to congratulate the Ozone Secretariat and other Montreal Protocol Bodies for the excellent organisation of the Meeting and for all results achieved so far which brought all of us to making Montreal Protocol to be recognized around the world as the most effective multilateral environmental agreement ever implemented.

My country accessed to the Vienna Convention and to the Montreal Protocol on 6th of March 1992.

We have ratified the Montreal Protocol Amendments from London, Copenhagen and Montreal in 2003 and the ratification of the Beijing Amendment was in 2011.

Our National Legislation for the implementation of the Montreal Protocol that established ODS Import/ Export Licensing, Quota and Permit system, is taken into force on 15th May 2007 by Legal Act of Council of Ministers.

First import quotas and import permits were issued by relevant State Institution to the licensed importers for their imports in 2008. It will take further harmonisation with EU regulation. By adoption of BiH HPMP by Council of Ministers in November 2013 we have established operational HCFC Import and export licencing, quota and permitting system.

In addition to that Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted new Legal Act on its 6th session on 21 May 2015 by which we have further introduced HCFC quota and permit system, permit system for F-gasses and ban on import of products and equipment containing HCFCs and its blends, and also ban on import of pure HCFC 141b and in pre-blended polyol starting with 1 january 2016.

In spite of all difficulties and obstacles which we had been facing in the post-war recovery period, Bosnia and Herzegovina has undertaken significant moves towards the implementation of the Montreal Protocol since the year 2000.Our first challenge of Zero consumption of CFC was reached at the end of 2009 and we have phased out 250 ODP tonnes of CFCs.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is strongly committed to further achievementof goals of Montreal protocol in accelerated phasing-out of HCFCs as our priority, but also we strongly support further work on achieving best modality for HFC amendment adoption.

We have achieved recognisable results so far, having enjoyed full support and assistance from the Ozone Secretariat, Multilateral Fund, UNEP Ozone Action programme and UNIDO as our International Implementation Agency.

Knowing that there is no country in the world which is able to resolve numerous environmental issues on its own, Bosnia and Herzegovina is strongly supporting regional cooperation and is recognizing that regional cooperation is important instrument in strengthening political, economic and security stability.

ECA Regional Ozone Network is recognized as excelent instrument and platform for regional cooperation in the field of ozone layer protection and climate action.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina we have gained important experience which is going to be useful in our transition from pre-candidate to candidate country status in the process of EU integration, which is commitment of Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and we do hope that in near future we are going to be in position to apply for candidate status. ECA Regional ozone network is very importatnt for further progress in the process of EU integration in the field of protection of ozone layer and climate action.

Bosnia and Herzegovina as EU pre-candidate country is fully supportive of finding the best modality forHFC amendmentthat will accommodate needs of all parties of Montreal protocol.

The HCFC Phase-out Management Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina-HPMP, Stage I, for the period 2012-2020, was approved at the 66th meeting of the Executive Committee.

We have progressed as per workplan being fully committed to accomplish our common goal of successful accelerated phasing-out of HCFCs, but we are also fully aware of importance of phasing-down of HFCs. Investment part of activities under BiH HPMP has been fully completed recently, and we are working on non-investment activities in order to further improve our training and certification scheme, our Rand R scheme and ODS waste collection and disposal scheme .

Due to the aspiration of Bosnia and Herzegovina to become a member of the European Union by the year of 2020, the implementation of the HPMP should be mostly completed till that year, and accelerated reduction and phase-out of HCFC consumption should be done by 2025.

The total quota issued and used for 2014 is below the maximum allowable consumption specified in the multiyear agreement which is 4.7 ODP tonnes. We are looking forward to work on HPMP stage II preparations in due course.

Beside implementation of HPMP there is another important project for us.

Regional ODS waste Destruction Strategy was approved at 69th ExCom meeting as demonstration project. NOU BiH was very active in its implementation jointly with NOUs of Monte Negro and Croatia in cooperation with UNIDO and UNEP and we had many lessons learned and also we had improved synergies with Basel and Stockholm conventions. Licensed hazardous waste operator was appointed in our country as ODS waste collection center and we had project closure session at ECA network meeting held in Bucharest, Romania in October this year.

R and R scheme have started to function through established 20 mobile centers. Training and certification scheme of RAC techniciansis established and ongoing very well, same asCustom officers training.

We put a lot of efforts on Public awareness activities. Latest public awareness activities for children on the theme Save the Ozone Layer was conducted jointly by NOU BiH and Kidsfestival office. More than 1000 kids were educated, and lectures were given by NOU BiH andby Euromelanoma member dermatologist.

I would like to assure you that Bosnia and Herzegovina as a Party to the Montreal Protocol and Vienna Convention, and as an Article 5 country is fully committed towards further compliance with the implementation of the Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Conventionand also to efforts on climate action agenda by supporting further negotiations on HFC amendment.

Thank you for your kind attention.

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