Events

PRESENTATION OF DRAFT STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN FOR HARMONIZED AREA

The Ministry of Economy presented the Draft Strategy and Action Plan for harmonized area under Chapter 1 - Free movement of goods

"The obligation of each, as well as our country, is to create the conditions whereby the economic operators produce and put on the market products which are competitive and safe for consumers. This is our obligation towards the European Union, but we primarily do it for our own industry", as explained by Assistant Minister for Quality Infrastructure and Chairman of the Negotiating Group 1 Mr. Jovan Petrovic, at the meeting in Serbian Chamber of Commerce on Oct 17th, where the Draft Strategy and Action Plan for harmonized area under Chapter 1 - Free movement of goods was presented.

He also said that Serbia established a necessary system by transposing cca 75% of European legislation and 97 % of European standards. The process of harmonization continues, and therefore he emphasized the fact that the Strategy and Action Plan in question is of great importance not only for the opening of Chapter 1, and for the EU integration of Serbia, but primarily for the Serbian industry as a whole, as well as for the protection of consumers in Serbia.

The Ministry of Economy is at the forefront of the Negotiating Group 1 - Free movement of goods and has a coordinating role in the field of technical regulations and requirements for product safety and quality infrastructure. "The Ministry of Economy has taken over all European technical regulations within its responsibility so far, and now an active cooperation in this field with the competent ministries, institutions of quality infrastructure, chamber of commerce, NGOs and other partners to fully transpose and implement the regulations under their own responsibility is ahead of us", said Petrovic.

He particularly expressed gratitude to the colleagues from the Twinning project from the Czech Republic, who have engaged in a very important moment in these activities, and provided significant support on many aspects of this process. "Although this part of the negotiating process is regarded as one of the most progressive, the harmonization process is still going on, and this is exacly the area in which the project will provide us with the most important assistance“, concluded Petrovic.