There will be more EU subsidies for Serbian agriculture

Serbia is one of the beneficiaries of the European Union’s IPA funds for the allocation of subsidies intended for agricultural development, but it faces the problem of spending that money due to the lack of development projects. A precondition for better results is the establishment of a completely transparent system for the use of these subsidies, said the participants of the press conference dedicated to these problems.
If the money received from EU funds for subsidies in agriculture were measured according to the number of inhabitants, its amount could go up to 2.3 billion euros. Bulgaria, which has approximately the same population as Serbia, received so many non-refundable funds for agricultural development, about seven million.
However, it happens that some countries, such as Croatia, received more money than Bulgaria, even though it has a smaller population. The reason is the fact that Croatia is a younger EU member and needs more funds to raise its gross domestic product (GDP).
Through the IPARD program, within which funds from IPA funds are distributed, Serbia received only about 150 million euros for the improvement of agriculture. The fact that about 40% of the EU budget goes to subsidies intended for that activity shows how important agriculture is as an activity in the EU.
EU representatives also emphasize that Serbia will have to conduct more transparent public procurement, in order to use the money intended for subsidies more efficiently and not to spend it unspent.
Serbia started IPARD accreditation in 2014 and 2015, and the first revision was in 2016.
However, the EU representatives emphasize that our country still does not have a sufficiently developed and transparent way to efficiently use the money from the funds. In addition, it lacks a system for distributing that money.
The general impression is that Serbia has clearly started to apply appropriate measures, and it has often happened that the payment of money has been suspended. The money can be spent during the year when it is approved or in the next three years.
That is the rule with EU finances, and in Serbia it was a problem in the first year because only a part of that money was spent. The rest has not been spent and must be returned to the EU budget, with some exceptions. Until now, Serbia has been exempted from the rule that it did not have to return the unspent money.
By the end of this year, separate savings of 16 million plus money from previous years must be spent, which is a total of about 45 million euros. About seven million have been spent so far this year, and it is obvious that Serbia will ask for an exemption again, so that it would not have to return that money.
EU representatives say that only 10% was paid to farmers, and that it is very worrying, because Serbia will have more and more money at its disposal, but it will not be able to spend it due to the lack of projects. EU representatives remind that Serbia has accepted participation in IPA 1 and IPA 2 programs, but has decided not to implement the IPA 3 program, Nova Ekonomija reports.