Twinning Spain-Serbia to adapt the national legislation to the Common Fisheries Policy

Serbia does not currently have a law regulating the market for fishery and aquaculture products. Serbia needs to implement some measures to ensure the correct application of European legislation. Prior to accession, Serbia will have to implement measures to prevent the import or sale of fish or fishery products from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

With the main objective of supporting the Serbian administration in the effective management of the EU accession negotiations and to facilitate a successful integration into the Union, Spanish specialists will work hand in hand with their Serbian counterparts in a twinning project between the two countries.

Belgrade, has hosted the inauguration of the project Development of national legislation in the fisheries sector in Serbia which represents a significant milestone on Serbia’s path towards EU accession. The overall objective of the project is to support Serbia in making progress in the harmonisation of the Union’s legal frameworks for aquaculture, which will bring them closer to becoming a Member State of the Union.

This project is led by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in collaboration with the Xunta de Galicia and with the support of FIIAPP. These institutions will work closely with the staff of the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management (MAFWM) and other competent authorities and stakeholders to advance this work.

The launch event, held at the MAFWM headquarters, was attended by senior representatives of the institutions involved and marked the start of the work with the first meeting of the MAFWM Steering Committee and the preparation of the work plan.

Elisa Carbajo, project leader on the Spanish side, spoke of her expectations ‘I hope that we can achieve the objective we are pursuing with the project, which is to facilitate Serbia’s development of its legal framework for fisheries and aquaculture in accordance with the requirements of the Common Fisheries Policy, thus enabling the country to meet the requirements for accession, and in particular, to design a strategy that allows for the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector’.