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Communications |
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Kosovo Veterinary Officials exchange experiences with Maltese officials
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Date:
08/06/2010
Six staff of the Kosovo Food and Veterinary Agency KFVA led by Dr Mentor Zekaj from the Office of the Prime Minister, accompanied by the Director of Animal Production, Mr Bajram Imeri, from the Ministry of Agriculture and a sheep farmer representing the private sector, have visited Malta from 30th May to 4th June 2010. They have studied the procedures and information systems used by the Malta Agriculture and Fisheries Regulation Department. Areas of special interest to the visitors included animal identification and traceability and animal disease control.
They requested to visit Malta because the livestock production systems, and regulatory issues, are in many respects comparable to those of Kosovo. The same livestock database system which has been developed in Malta has been adopted by Kosovo. The Government of Kosovo has identified Malta as a role model in veterinary regulation systems. The Maltese animal health and welfare legislation has been used as a model for that which has been promulgated in Kosovo.
In 2004 Malta was the first of the then 25 EU member states to be recognized by the EU Commission as having a “fully-operational” cattle identification and registration system. An important consequence of this recognition is that the Government is not required to issue cattle passports, except in the case of cattle being exported to other EU countries. This results in major cost savings for Government and farmers. Kosovo is also developing its regulatory systems to be compliant with EU standards in preparation for eventual EU membership.
While in Malta, the group from Kosovo has been working closely with the managers of the Maltese livestock database and had the opportunity to visit cattle, pigs and sheep and goat farmers. The visit has been very successful and both sides are sure that a link has been forged between the relevant departments of the two countries which will be maintained and strengthened.
The visit is being financed by the European Union. Malta was also the beneficiary of three EU twinning projects in the field of veterinary regulation during the period leading up to and immediately following accession in 2004. Since then the Government of Malta has developed and enhanced the systems to improve efficiency, and to comply with new regulatory requirements.
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