Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Milos Milovanovic said today that upon becoming an EU candidate country Serbia might be receiving up to €50 million annually from pre-accession funds for agriculture and rural development.
Milovanovic said at a press conference in Novi Sad that various negotiations with the European Commission on agricultural issues, including production quotas and the amount of agricultural budget are ahead of Serbia in the near future.
The funds Serbia will receive from pre-accession funds will be used for investments in agricultural production and development of economic activities in rural areas which do not have to be necessarily linked with agriculture, Milovanovic said.
For this reason the Ministry of Agriculture has seriously addressed the Questionnaire of the European Commission, which contained about 400 questions related to agriculture.
These 400 questions indicate that agriculture occupies an important place in the economy of Serbia as well as the attention paid to this sector by a number of European Commission’s Directorates, said the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management.