GF-TADs
GF-TADs for Europe
Read more
IGALO, July 10. /OIE/. Dr Budimir Plavsic, OIE Regional Representative for Europe met Mr Aleksandar Stijović, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Montenegro, and Dr Vesna Dakovic, OIE Delegate and Chief Veterinary Officer of Montenegro.
Dr Budimir Plavšić transferred congratulations to Mr Stijovic from the OIE Directorate General and the OIE Regional Representation for Europe for his new mandate as Minister of Agriculture of Montenegro with the best wishes for his term.
Dr Budimir Plavšić marked the highest level of long term collaboration between the OIE-Europe and Veterinary Authorities of Montenegro and underlined the very active role of Veterinary Services of Montenegro in subregional collaboration at Western Balkans and beyond.
He informed the Minister about the results of the last elections during the 88th OIE General Session, including for OIE Director General, Specialists Commissions and for Regional Bureau for Europe. In particular, Dr Vesna Dakovic, Chief Veterinary Officer of Montenegro, was re-elected for the position of Vice-President of the Regional Bureau for Europe. Dr Plavšić emphasized a very important role of CVO and her team in other regional activities, including OIE Regional Core Group, OIE Regional Platform for Animal Welfare and GF-TADs Steering Committee.
Minister Stijovic expressed his best impressions of the meeting with OIE Regional Representatives and marked his full awareness of the role and mandate of the OIE in protecting animal health and welfare, contributing to the protection of human and environmental health while ensuring safe trade of animals and products of animal origin, and providing capacity-building support to Member Countries, and particularly for Montenegro and other countries in the region.
Minister explained priorities and challenges on their agenda, confirming that animal health, disease control and food safety are of crucial importance for himself and his team.
Minister also confirmed to Dr Plavsic he will make sure further support to the OIE will be provided for regional priorities, namely for newly established One Health Mechanism in Europe, and ongoing projects, including control of transboundary animal diseases under GF-TADs umbrella, and Animal welfare platform.
Ms Dakovic expressed great satisfaction with the meeting and thanked Dr Plavsic for his visit during pandemic restrictions. She reported results of the regional workshop carried out in the city Petrovac na Moru, organized by EU funded regional project, underlining their recommendations for Rabies and Bluetongue control in the subregion, also reflecting an idea of the project to revitalize subregional cooperation between Balkan heads of Veterinary Services (CVOs).
She elaborated on a high-level cross-border collaboration of Veterinary Services in Western Balkans during the last five years, supported by EU (The Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, DG SANTE) and OIE, with best practices demonstrated during Lumpy Skin and Bluetongue outbreaks in 2016. She also presented great results to her team in the development of the Veterinary Information System in Montenegro funded by the World Bank. Minister Stijovic underlined the importance of data management for the public sector as a tool for decision making, while Dr Plavsic informed him that information management with digital transformation is one of five objectives of the OIE 7th Strategic Plan, adopted by the World Assembly of Delegates in May 2021.
The meeting was concluded with the agreement of all parties the collaboration between Montenegro and OIE is on a very high level, and the next meeting is to be organized in close future.
During the same day, Dr Plavsic, Minister Stijovic and director Dakovic participated in the regional meeting of the Visegrad Vet+ group providing their presentations and statements. They also informally met with presidents of Veterinary Chambers of Montenegro and Serbia and CVO of Bosnia and Hercegovina, discussing regional priorities, challenges and opportunities related to the veterinary profession.
