At the closing ceremony of the twinning project “Further Capacity Building in the area of Plant Protection Products and Pesticides Residues in the Republic of Serbia” held in Klub poslanika, project objectives were presented – ensuring the protection of human health, the environment and consumers within the Republic of Serbia.

The project has achieved all the agreed project objectives and in doing so has provided advice and training on the best practices relating to the regulation of plant protection products (PPPs). The new project has utilised experience from the Member States, who have also assisted the institutions of the Republic of Serbia to align Serbian legislation with the EU acquis. The draft Serbian law on plant protection products has been prepared and it is in the process of adoption. With new legislation common EU rules would apply into food production chain, it would unify the production with international standards and ensure that the food production is safe for consumers, operators and for the environment.

The experts from MAFW, PPD and contracted external institutions have been trained in the EU requirements in the evaluation and authorisation of plant protection products in the course in over 400 training days delivered in the Republic of Serbia and two study visits of Serbian experts in two Member States. Technical evaluation and risk assessment training in all the scientific components: chemistry, ecotoxicology, toxicology, consumer risk and residues, operator exposure, environmental fate and behaviour and efficacy was delivered to experts from the 13 selected external institutions. Serbian experts were introduced into the EU risk assessment, authorisation and control procedures, which will ensure a robust set of procedures for the Republic of Serbia to address EU requirements for the accession to EU; and safer use of PPPs for consumers and the environment. The Technical equivalency of active substances in PPPs on Serbian market has been evaluated and the uses (Good Agriculture Practice) compared with the authorised uses in EU Member States. The information on PPPs has been communicated to the stakeholders and to the public at the XIV Plant Protection Conference (Zlatibor, November 2017) and via the national web site:  https://www.uzb.minpolj.gov.rs/

The Project, (overall budget of € 900.000), is funded by the European Union within the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) and is implemented by the Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD), Health and Safety Executive from the United Kingdom in partnership with the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture (ÚKŹÚŹ) from the Czech Republic and in close cooperation with the experts from Slovenia and Croatia. The beneficiary of the project is the Plant Protection Directorate (PPD) of the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management (MAFW). The Contracting Authority responsible for monitoring the implementation of the project is the Contracting and Financing of European Union Funded Programmes. This project is implemented under the system of decentralized management of EU funds.