Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem falling within the competence of the Government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem does not fall within our competence, we will forward your message to the competent institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia has functional system for managing, controlling EU funds

Belgrade, 27 February 2024

Minister for European Integration Tanja Miscevic stated today that in Serbia there is an established system for the management and control of European Union funds, which is under the constant supervision of the European Commission.

Miscevic pointed out that since 2014, when the EC made a decision on entrusting the management of EU grants, Serbian institutions have been performing tasks of programming, contracting, monitoring, reporting, financial management, control and auditing, in accordance with the relevant rules related to EU pre-accession aid.

The minister emphasized that in the past 10 years, the European Commission has never made a decision, nor hinted that there is a reason to take away entrusted jobs or suspend the payment of funds to the Republic of Serbia due to suspicion of fraud or abuse.

In complete contrast to that, the European Commission made a decision to entrust Serbia with the management of funds from the new instrument of the European Union (IPA III), having previously verified the fulfillment of appropriate legal, institutional and administrative prerequisites and the functionality of the system for the management and control of EU financial resources, Miscevic said.

According to her, that prerequisite was fulfilled when the appropriate legal and institutional framework for the management and control of EU funds was established, which the auditors of the European Commission very carefully checked to make sure of the readiness and ability to manage the funds.

The Minister pointed out that a very important part of the overall system for managing EU funds is the appropriate subsystem for combating fraud and managing irregularities in the handling of the Union's financial resources, noting that this system could not exist if it had not been positively assessed by the EC auditor.

She noted that Serbia is not familiar with any idea of analysing the spending of funds from the EU budget by the European Parliament in relation to our country, which is an unusual way of control, but that the Parliament as a political body can analyse any action.

On the other hand, we know for sure that there is no extraordinary control of the European Commission, although this would not be an unusual way of working either, because any contracting of projects is first subject to the control of the EU Delegation in Serbia, Miscevic added.