On 20^th October, the Palace of Serbia hosted a ceremony to mark the successful kick-off of the project “Support the establishment of a carcass classification system in line with the EU Common Agricultural Policy”.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Ministry of Finance, through the Department for Contracting and Financing of EU Funded Programmes (CFCU), representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management (MAFWM), and the Delegation of the European Union of the Republic of Serbia. By the side of the Member States of the European Union, the act was attended by Mr. Raúl Bartolomé Molina, Ambassador of Spain to Serbia, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Spain and representatives of the Food and Veterinary Service of Latvia. As well as representatives of other relevant institutions.

In his welcome address, Nenad Katanić, Assistant Minister of sector for Agricultural Policy of MAFWM, explained that the project officially began on June 6 2022, and during these four months several activities have been held. Some of them are the development of a training programme, the preparation of equipment calibration and a study visit to Spain, where five Serbian experts were introduced to the system of beef carcass classification.

Vedrana Ilić, Assistant Minister of sector for International Cooperation of MAFWM, remarked that this project continues to support the process of harmonizing legislation with EU law in the area of ​​carcass classification and thus continues to follow the path of fulfilling the obligations undertaken by the Republic of Serbia towards the European Union.

Raúl Bartolomé Molina, Ambassador of Spain to Serbia, expressed that through cooperation projects between the Administration of Spain and the Administration of Serbia, both countries are working together also with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life of every citizen. And without forgetting that this project is possible thanks to a consortium with Latvia, which is an example of the close cooperation that exists among EU member States in all fields of everyday life.

A video participation was held where the General Director of Agricultural Production of Spain, Ms. Esperanza Orellana remarked the good collaboration between our countries and thanked all the experts from the Spanish institutions that are going share their knowledge during the next months. 

This meeting was attended as well by the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia. Mr. Sakellaris Hourdas, who mentioned the importance of the commerce of agricultural products, where Serbia traditionally exports more than it imports, and reflected about the importance of this project for aligning with quality standards and to fulfil with consumers’ demands.

Finally, Ms Sonsoles Mories, from the International and Iberoamerican Foundation for Administration and Public Policies of Spain stressed that this is an excellent example of Spanish´s commitment to support Pre-accession countries in the process of harmonising their legislation with EU standards.

The general objective of the project is to direct meat producers towards the market and consumer demands, and to improvement of the quality of meat production and the transparency of the meat market in the Republic of Serbia.

It should result in the establishment of a mandatory classification system for beef and pork carcasses on the slaughter line and the reporting of their prices in accordance with European Union regulations, as well as the establishment of the application of definitions, labels and sales labels.

The project, which has a budget of 1,000,000 euros, has a duration of 18 months, during which different missions of Spanish and Latvian experts will be carried out, who will visit different meat establishments and will carry out the training of the MAFWM, of the control body and the staff of the slaughterhouses. Serbian team will also travel to Spain and Latvia to see how this system works in those countries.