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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

EU accession especially important for agriculture

Belgrade, 13 May 2005

Serbian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Ivana Dulic-Markovic stated today that it would be extremely important for local agriculture if Serbia were to become an EU member by 2013, so that local producers could have access to EU budget funds.

Author: Tanjug

At a round table titled “Agriculture in the Stabilisation and Association Agreement” held as part of the project of regular talks with journalists aimed at preparing the public for the beginning of the stabilisation and association agreement with the EU initiated by the Serbian government’s EU Integration Office and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Dulic-Markovic assessed that if Serbia does not enter EU budget plans for the period from 2013, it could be left without financial support for a longer period of time which could also be measured in hundreds of millions of euros.

According to her, it is important for agriculture that the country enter the EU as soon as possible because it will not be able to withstand competition of neighbouring countries who are member candidates, as well as EU members themselves, partly because their agriculture has a higher degree of support than Serbia is in a position to provide.

Dulic-Markovic explained that EU membership is also important for our agriculture because the EU’s share in the world gross national income is 19.8 percent, with world goods trade representing 19 percent, 24 percent in services, and 32 percent of direct investments in the world are linked to investments in the EU. She added that it is a challenge for our country to be in such good company and try to play in the world league.

The Minister said that the EU is the second largest food exporter, and stressed that local agriculture must adapt to the complicated system of money distribution, which is in contrast to pricing policy. She explained that this is why it is necessary to change the system of registration and statistics, payment mechanisms, as well as control of spending from the agriculture budget.

Dulic-Markovic said that according to the Action Plan for EU Accession, eight laws should be adopted in the area of agriculture this year and that they will be harmonised with EU regulations.

Assistant Minister of Agriculture Goran Zivkov pointed out that Serbia can offer quality agricultural products to developed markets and specified that there are currently 66 products which are competitive on quality in spite of higher prices than those in the EU, and another 140 products that are price competitive.

He underlined that improved agricultural production was confirmed by the foreign trade exchange, which recorded a deficit of $250 million in 2001, while in the first four months of this year, for the first time after four years, there was a $66 million surplus.

Zivkov emphasised that in the following seven to eight years, more than a billion euro will have to be invested in Serbian agriculture, in order to increase competitiveness prior to joining the EU.

These discussions with journalists will last until July 2005 and include access to ministers of the government’s negotiating team, representatives of the European Commission delegation in Serbia-Montenegro and EU member states in the country.

The meetings are held every other week in the form of a working breakfast. Journalists will be given an opportunity to talk about all elements of this process in an informal atmosphere with the immediate participants of the accession process.