GMO, milk and swine fever hamper Serbia's negotiations with EU

At the seventh plenary session of the National Convent on the EU, held on June 10, 2019, at the National Assembly of Serbia, a report was filed on the realization of the harmonization in the fields of agriculture, rural development, food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy and fisheries – Chapters 11, 12 and 13.

According to Branislav Gulan, a member of the task force within the Rural Development Network, very little has been done in 2019 to address the 63 recommendations given by the National Convent in 2018.

– When it comes to Chapter 11 – Agriculture and Rural Development, the report says that Serbia is not ready enough for the negotiations and that it has made no progress in food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy either, pertaining to Chapter 12 – Gulan points out. – Serbia is invited to prepare an all-encompassing strategy of transposition and implementation in these fields, as well as to essentially strengthen the administrative capacities in this field and consistently implement and upgrade the methods of risk assessment in border inspections.

Gulan points out that it was especially emphasized that the National Reference Laboratory had been opened, but that it had not been accredited for milk control.

Also, it was said that Serbia needed to take a position on the dynamics of eradicating swine fever. The EU also requires the country to adopt a strategy of managing waste of animal origin, and one of the serious complaints is that there is no progress when it comes to the harmonization of the Law on GMO, he adds.

When it comes to Chapter 13, the estimate is that Serbia has made certain progress in the field of fisheries by adopting regulations on the certification of fish catch.

The report says that Serbia needs to prepare an action plan which will secure full compatibility until the accession to the EU, especially when it comes to market organization, aquaculture, data collection and measures of control of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities, Gulan says.

Narodna skupština Republike Srbije

Direkcija za nacionalne referentne laboratorije

Rural Development Network

Branislav Gulan

National Convent on the EU

National Assembly of Serbia

National Reference Laboratory

swine fever

GMO

milk