Serbia’s rural areas have a great potential for development, but also some weaknesses that both need to be addressed during its accession process into the European Union, a EU-funded workshop on empowering rural stakeholders concluded Wednesday.
Serbia’s agriculture and food contribute to GDP as much as 12 percent and the sector’s employment level is well above the EU average, while the country has a trade surplus with the EU.
“The EU Delegation will continue to work with all stakeholders to strengthen the competitiveness of Serbia’s rural areas and prepare the agricultural sector for a successful EU accession,” Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Oscar Benedikt told the closing conference in Belgrade.
Two groups, composed of experts from EU member states, representatives of the European Commission, Serbia’s civil society and Ministry of Agriculture, assessed several villages and towns and wrapped up the findings at the conference.
Serbia’s rural development plays an important role in adjusting agriculture policy to EU standards within the process of accession to the European Union.
Having visited the rural areas near the towns of Uzice and Kraljevo, as well as Arilje, Nova varos and Ivanjica, the working groups, including also representatives from Bosnia, Albania and Turkey, gathered information on how rural economies there function, noticed what were their strong points, but also weak ones.
The group visiting the Kraljevo area was surprised with “high entrepreneurial skills,” its rapporteur Urszula Budzich Tabor said.
“People there take their destiny in their own hands,” she said. But they need “more linkages” and “small producers need help as they cannot manage on their own,” she suggested.
The European Commission organised a three-day workshop throughout the country aimed at empowering rural stakeholders.
Throughout the visited areas “a number of leaders” have been identified both in public sector, local activity groups and among individual producers, who are very active and seen as “key points for a change and local development.”
“The timing of the event coincides with countries in the region preparing their operational programmes for IPARD – the Commission’s principal financing instrument for assisting accession countries to strengthen the agricultural and rural economy,” Benedikt said.
“The EU has been providing assistance to Serbia to prepare for IPARD since 2007 and I encourage the Minister to meet the timelines for the 2014 IPA programme,” he added.
Along with findings by missions that simultaneously assessed rural ares in Macedonia and Montenegro, the issue would be discussed at April 8 Concluding Conference on Empowering rural stakeholders in Brussels, organised in co-operation with Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group (SWG) and the PREPARE Partnership for Rural Europe.
