Lessons learned by the new EU Member States can facilitate the EU accession process

    The representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Delegation of European Union to Serbia and the EU Project dealing with negotiations in the field of agriculture, took the opportunity to inform the visitors of the Agricultural Fair about the experience of new EU Member States on legislation alignment process in the agriculture sector. EU legislation under Chapter 12 is considered to be very demanding, with more than 450 regulations to be harmonized.

    The conference "Food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy of the EU - Lessons learned from the new EU member states" was opened by Dejan Maksić, Project Coordinator at the MAFWM, who highlighted three benchmarks that Serbia needs to fulfil under Chapter 12. In addition to harmonizing the legislative framework and creating strategies and action plans, including a Contingency plan for classical swine fever, Serbia needs to meet a set of measures related to the categorization of food establishments, which is also the starting point in meeting the criteria.

    Andrej Papić, Project Manager at the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia stated that EU policy is also evolving, primarily in more sustainable utilization of resources, and that this is one more task that the MAFWM, with the technical and financial support of the EU, should fulfil. He reminded that an ultimate goal of a number of projects, that the EU is currently implementing in the Serbian agriculture sector, is to facilitate the complex work that many countries have already completed. He also stressed that Serbia can take the advantage of their valuable experience.

    Addressing the audience, Vincent Aubin, a representative of the European Commission's Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), suggested that Serbia should already think as a Member State of the European Union while in the process of harmonisation. He stressed that solving inherited problems is the most important process, that all Member States had also gone through.

    Mr. Aubin emphasized the usefulness of the EU's decades-long experience in defining food and animal health and animal welfare standards and the EU's readiness to transpose that experience to future Members States. According to him, the EU is aware that Serbia should in a period of just a few years complete a task that took several decades for some of the Member States.

    In order to explain to the audience the changes that one country should pass from candidate status to member status, he gave several practical examples from the 55-year-long history of EU development in the veterinary, customs, plant protection and animal health and welfare sector.

    Vincent Auben optimistically ended the presentation by listing the advantages of the experience of the EU Member States and the lessons learned in the accession process quoting parts of the statement by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Layen, given a few days ago. Announcing her visit to the Western Balkans at the end of the month, she said that it was a strong signal of the European Commission's commitment to the accession process and that she believed that "investing in the future of the Western Balkans is investing in the future of the European Union".