The representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection briefly presented the Information on the IPARD programme stressing that, in the previous period, the Ministry focused on promoting the programme and cooperating with the local self-governments in particular, so that the end users i.e. the agricultural producers could be fully informed about it, activities which were given positive assessments by the European Commission. At the moment, the Ministry is working on training the support services which will be at the disposal of the end users in the future, and on the external audit which should lead to the finalisation of the accreditation package. They are also working on the regulation of the legislative framework necessary for the signing of the financial package and related amendments to the Law on Agriculture and Rural Development and the amendments to the Law on Stimulations. One of the problems is lack of staff in the institutions which should conduct the programme, therefore new staff is being speedily employed and trained so that they would be prepared to realise the programme, which is expected to occur in the second half of next year.

Following a debate, the Committee unanimously accepted the Information on the IPARD programme and suggested measures how to speed up the accreditation and realisation of the programme, as well as the employment and training of necessary staff.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Activity Information for the period April-June 2015 was presented by the Minister of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic who announced a series of legislative documents that is to be imminently submitted for debate at the Assembly. She said that the most important activities in the reported period were the finalisation of the strategic documents, especially the strategy of agriculture and rural development, finalisation of the IPARD programme, drafting of a national programme for agriculture and rural development, as well as 26 different rulebooks for the field of agriculture. The Ministry also worked on bilateral projects, and preparations for the screening of chapters 11, 12 and 13 in Brussels, as well as Chapter 27 – environmental protection. This was also the period when Serbia was afflicted by floods when the Water Directorate had a key role in conducting flood protection and relief efforts. The Veterinary Directorate was also employed in the field, to prevent the spread of disease among animals and the citizenry. The Plant Protection Directorate visited all the flooded areas and advised how to renew production, and the Directorate for National Reference Laboratories provided facilities for the storage and distribution of material.

Discussing this item on its agenda, the Committee mainly had questions about what was done to prevent the spread of bluetongue disease in said period and for clarification of certain information relating to the measures conducted after the floods.

After the debate, the Committee members adopted the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Activity Information for the period April-June 2015 by majority vote, and forwarded it to the National Assembly for ruling.

The Information on the payment of agriculture stimulation packages in 2015 was presented by assistant ministers of agriculture and environmental protection and the Head of the Directorate for Agrarian Payments. They presented the procedure for and structure of the stimulation payments. The 2015 financial plan secured 41.2 billion RSD for the Ministry, out of which 35.8 billion was allocated for agriculture, 27.2 billion of which went to subsidies. 85% of the funds are paid through the Directorate for Agrarian Payments which has so far paid 65% of the registered subsidies. 71% of direct payments have been realised, mainly those relating to fertilizer and fuel compensations, and the same percentage of payments for livestock breeding have also been realised. Besides, the Ministry reinforced the control in the field to prevent the unauthorised use of budget funds. The number of registered farming households this year is 350,000 and the Directorate struggles with a lack of staff working on the realisation of the subsidies for said households and the realisation of the IPARD programme which it also directs.

In the ensuing debate, the MPs asked about the structure of agricultural production subsidies in underdeveloped rural areas, lacking irrigation, the structure of measures, i.e. how many users there are per measure and what is the trend compared to previous years and on the regional level, livestock breeding subsidies, realisation of small household programmes, realisation of subsidies for grain and sheep production, subsidy payment dynamics, and the right to subsidies in registered agricultural households.

Following the debate the Committee adopted a Conclusion recommending that the Government reallocate subsidy and stimulation measure funds from the existing funds and pay the subsidies for plant production and other due payments, and to secure additional funds for the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection and the Directorate for Agrarian Payments so that the subsidies could be paid in full.

The Committee Chairman informed the members that the Committee’s next sitting will be held outside of the Assembly headquarters, on 18 and 19 September 2015, in Backa Topola.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic.