Agreements on cooperation of Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia within IPARD program signed

In the presence of the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia, in Belgrade, on Friday, representatives of the Agrarian Payments Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture of Serbia and the competent bodies of Montenegro and North Macedonia signed agreements on cooperation within the program of non-repayable funds of the EU for agriculture – IPARD.

The Government of Serbia announced that the agreements on cooperation had been signed by Director of the Agrarian Payments Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Slobodan Nikolovski, Director of the Directorate for IPARD Payments of Montenegro Marko Radonjic and Director of the Agency for Financial Support for Agriculture and Rural Development of North Macedonia Ilija Stoilev.

Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Plamena Halacheva welcomed “the strengthening of the common vision of the countries of the Western Balkans for their agriculture to become more innovative, resistant and sustainable.”

As said in the press release, she emphasized that the EU support was significant and transformative – the IPARD program strengthens farmers, producers of agricultural producers and the entire rural community in order for them to modernize and innovate their activities.

Halacheva said that the EU supported Serbian agriculture with EUR 463 million for the implementation of the IPARD program and she called on the end users to take advantage of this opportunity to improve production and transform rural communities.

Director of the Agrarian Payments Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Slobodan Nikolovski said that, regarding the implementation of the domestic measures of incentives and the IPARD programs, Serbian experts would step up the efforts toward perfecting all the measures in order to have the money paid to agricultural producers as quickly and easily as possible.

Director of the Directorate for IPARD Payments of Montenegro Marko Radonjic said that the signing of the agreement was an additional step forward toward the EU for Montenegro, for the closing of the chapters 11, 12 and 13 and the country’s accession negotiations. He said that the “absorption of funds” in Montenegro was above 90% and that the country had much more money to support agricultural producers within the IPARD III program.

Director of the Agency for Financial Support for Agriculture and Rural Development of North Macedonia Ilija Stoilev said that North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro “are predetermined to cooperate on harmonizing and implementing European legislature in the agriculture sector as well” with the help of the IPARD program. He added that, in North Macedonia, the “absorption of funds” from that program was 85%, about which he would “selflessly share the experiences with the agencies of Serbia and Montenegro.”

Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede Republike Srbije

Delegacija Evropske unije u Republici Srbiji Beograd

Directorate for IPARD Payments of Montenegro

Agency for Financial Support for Agriculture and Rural Development of North Macedonia

Slobodan Nikolovski

Marko Radonjić

Ilija Stoilev

IPARD program

agricultural production

innovations in agriculture