Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

Serbia was notified by Brussels that it does not meet the requirements for the use of the IPARD pre-accession funds for agriculture at the moment, EurActive confirmed on 23 September at the Government of Serbia and the EU Delegation to Serbia. Enabling the Directorate for Agrarian Payments will not be the only deficiency that needs to be remedied, and the funds intended for 2015 are not yet lost – they may be used until the end of 2018.

The assessment that Serbia is not yet ready for the use of IPARD funds was made based on the visit of the European Commission auditors to Serbia in late May, and a document was submitted to the Government of Serbia highlighting all the deficiencies that need to be rectified in order for the money to be used, the EU Delegation stated for EurActiv.

The IPARD funds envisaged EUR 15 million for this year, and once the funds start to be used, the amount will increase year on year, so that for the entire seven-year period the EU funds are programmed for, it may reach EUR 175 million.

The condition for the use of IPARD funds was that Serbia take over the competence for the procedure for spending funds through the so-called decentralized systems and that the Directorate for Agrarian Payments is enabled and its capacities strengthened.

Written by: SV, taken from www.euractiv.rs