Serbia "can be proud of results achieved in 2014"

Serbia "can be proud of results achieved in 2014"

"We have worked hard on the screening process and we are making intensive preparations for the opening of the first negotiation chapters in the coming months," Davenport said, addressing the participants of the 42nd Assembly of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities on local self-government, environment and rural development on the way towards European standards.

Seventy percent of the EU regulations that Serbia must implement pertain to the local level, Davenport told the mayors and municipal presidents attending.

It is time that municipalities leave party policies aside and focus on the residents' needs, the EU ambassador said, adding that, since 2000, Brussels has donated more than EUR 330 million for improvement of local and regional development in Serbia.

The focus in 2015 will be on reforming the state administration, as it is the third pillar of the European Commission reform strategy for countries of the region, said Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Kori Udovicki, who is also Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government.

"It is clear to us that we must simplify regulations and boost administrative capacities at local level in order to be able to use EU funds," she said, adding that the government is resolved to carry out a reform of the state administration "that is essentially aimed at creating a prosperous state."

Udovicki also said that the new law on employees in local self-government units - currently debated in the parliament - offers an opportunity to improve the way in which public administration works.

Serbian Minister of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Snezana Bogosavljevic-Boskovic said that big challenges are ahead for Serbia in these areas.

"The National Agriculture Program and the National Rural Development Program define an entire set of support measures aimed at encouraging development in agriculture and rural regions with funds from the national budget," she noted.

Bogosavljevic-Boskovic said that the final version of the IPARD program has been sent to the EU directorate for agriculture and that it has been adopted consensually, adding that the final decision is due in late January next year.