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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Seminar "Serbia's agriculture on the road to EU" held

Belgrade, 23 March 2007

The Serbian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management held a seminar entitled "Serbia's agriculture on the road to EU" with the aim of presenting the results of a two-year twinning project "Building institutional capacities within the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management".

Author: Fonet

State Secretary at the Ministry Danilo Golubovic pointed out that this project was financed by the EU through the European Agency for Reconstruction and that experts from the agriculture ministries of the Netherlands, Slovenia and Serbia took part in it.

He said that since the beginning of the project in January 2005 until the completion in March this year, more than 30 experts worked in Serbia, ten study visits and training courses were organised in the Netherlands, and in Slovenia and Great Britain and more than 150 employees in the Ministry were trained.

The project contributed to development of new systems in the Ministry for staff management, training, financial control and communication, analysis, trade negotiations, and for adoption of new procedures for harmonisation of the Serbian legislation with that of the EU.

Golubovic said that results of the project also include the preparation of the complete draft of the chapter on agriculture in the EU stabilisation and association agreement, and all requests for the sector of agriculture related to the application for membership in the World Trade Organisation.

The three best practices introduced to the Ministry of Agriculture were presented at the seminar - new systems for human resources management, the latest techniques for evaluation of real effects of politics on farmers, consumers and other interested parties, and an all-encompassing approach to harmonisation of Serbia's laws and decrees with EU legislation.

President of the European Agency for Reconstruction Simon Davis said that Serbia's success in the field of agriculture above all depends on the private sector because that is the sector that creates wealth.

Davis said that the Ministry's role is to help the private sector and to supervise the use of budgetary funds, because the interest of the private sector is often not the same as that of the public sector.