After more than a year of consultations at multiple levels within several countries of the wider region, today in Višnja Gora (Slovenia), in the House of Carniola bees, an official initiative meeting for the establishment of the European Beekeeping Association was held.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the beekeeping associations of Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republic of Srpska), Macedonia and Montenegro, who agreed to join the establishment of the European Beekeeping Association BECAUSE WE NEED IT! Several other European beekeeping associations (Hungary etc) have already received positive signals for the realization of this initiative, but they could not be present at today’s meeting for objective reasons.
The participants of the meeting supported all the activities of Apimondia to improve beekeeping, but singled out local European problems that must be solved by European beekeepers at the local European level.
These are primarily the following three main goals of establishing the European Beekeeping Association:
-The fight against counterfeit honey that flooded the European market
-The fight for the introduction of special subsidies per beehive based on the contribution to the pollination of cultivated and uncultivated plants and the improvement of ecology
-The fight against the improper use of pesticides toxic to bees
The list of goals is very long and comprehensive and will be presented in the following period, but these three goals are crucial and must be the backbone of its activities at the beginning of the work of the European Beekeeping Association.
It has been agreed that the founding assembly of the European Beekeeping Association will be held on „neutral ground“, i.e. in Serbia, in Rača, at the Education Center of the Beekeepers’ Honey Collection and Marketing Center of SPOS „NAŠ MED“ doo, on February 10, 2024. Until then, work will be done to animate all European beekeeping associations to join this initiative, because the more of us there are in the Association, the more success we will have in our work and the more weight we will have in the fight before the competent institutions of the European Union.
It was agreed that the technical secretary and organizer of all activities until the establishment of the European Beekeeping Association will be SPOS representative Biljana Tomić, B.Sc. lawyer.
It was agreed that the seat and leadership of the European Beekeeping Association will be chosen at the founding Assembly. It is a general opinion that the headquarters of the European Beekeeping Association must be on the territory of the EU for practical and political reasons, and that for the same reasons the first president of the European Beekeeping Association must be from a country of the European Union. At the founding Assembly, a decision will be made on the amount of the membership fee. During the technical preparation of the founding Assembly, all eventual costs will be covered in equal parts by the Beekeeping Association of Slovenia and the Association of Beekeeping Organizations of Serbia.
As soon as tomorrow, all beekeeping associations will be sent a short text on one page about the goals agreed today with the European Beekeeping Association, as well as an invitation to join it, for the benefit of the future of the entire European beekeeping.
After the meeting, a joint working lunch was held with the president of the World Beekeeping Federation APIMONDIJA, Jeff Pettis from the USA, and the director of the Carniola Bee House, Maja Lampret, to whom we especially thank for hosting this important meeting.
Good luck, with the hope that we will be able to achieve the first significant results already next year, because we must work quickly and efficiently, until counterfeit honey definitely destroys European beekeeping!
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