EU and Serbia adopt joint economic policy recommendations to push competitiveness, long-term growth and structural reforms.

On 12 May 2015, the EU ECOFIN Council and Finance Minister Vujović jointly adopted recommendations to increase competitiveness and long-term growth in Serbia. This includes strengthening the business environment, stimulating investment, improving public administration and advancing the restructuring and privatisation of state owned enterprises. The adoption of the recommendations was done on the basis of Serbia’s Economic Reform Program which outlines the Government’s economic priorities for the next 3 years.

The Finance Ministers of EU Member States welcomed Serbia’s recent progress on labour market and pension reforms as well as measures facilitating the issuance of construction permits and restructuring and privatisation of public enterprises.

Ministers were of the opinion that, despite having taken strong fiscal consolidation and structural reform measures, Serbia in general still faces uncertainties over its economy and its fiscal situation in particular.

Together with Minister Vujović, they therefore jointly adopted the following economic policy recommendations:

  • To continue structural reform and  fiscal consolidation;
  • To advance the restructuring and privatisation of state-owned enterprises, improve corporate governance, review the efficiency of state aid, to reduce its level and to revisit public sector employment in a sustainable manner;
  • To strengthen public finance management, notably by improving the capacity of the tax administration;
  • To address the issue of non-performing loans;
  • To improve the business environment and tackle the grey economy, notably by better regulating para-fiscal charges, business inspections and leasing of labour. To further simplify the regulatory environment by re‑launching the “regulatory guillotine”.
  • To adopt active labour market policies, focussing on youth and long term unemployed and dedicated skills upgrade programmes through education reform.
  • To stimulate private investment, for example through public schemes to support lending to SMEs and research activities in companies. To speed up the implementation of public projects, such as the work on transport corridors VII and X and energy production and transmission, with special attention to the construction of gas inter-connectors.

Implementation of these recommendations will be supported by targeted and concrete projects under the European Commission’s Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA).