At the invitation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of Serbia and as part of bilateral cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of Slovenia, a workshop was held on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 at the Agricultural Club in Belgrade related to the preparation of Measure 5 of the IPARD III program with the following topics: preparation draft regulations and procedures for the selection of LAGs, an annual action plan and guidelines for the preparation of local rural development strategies.
The Slovenian mission is here to help our Governing Body prepare the accreditation package for Measure 5 LEADER. Through a series of presentations, the Slovenian colleagues presented their way of approaching the mentioned problem. The head of the IPARD governing body, Jasmina Miljković, M.Sc., announced the announcement of the invitation for the beginning of the next year and suggested that we start slowly with the preparations for it already in the fall. She also informed us about the decision of the European Commission that the value of small projects has been increased from 5 to 10 thousand euros, which will significantly increase the possibility of realizing projects for LAGs that pass the upcoming accreditation. The details of the future call were discussed several times.
An additional problem is that we, as we are, since the LEADER program is being transferred from the national level to the IPARD program, are not recognized as LAGs, but as potential LAGs, which means that we will have to go through realignment or adaptation to the new rulebook that is being drafted. Also, the new rulebook foresees that in our Management Boards there should be a minimum of 20% representation of local self-governments before representatives of the public sector. It has not yet been specifically stated how this representation will be proved by local self-governments, that is, their bodies, it is possible that parliamentary decisions or the like will be required. We also expect the preparation of the Rural Development Strategy for our area Sremski Karlovci – Kovilj for the next period.
The Slovenian women will come again at the end of August and in September, they plan to visit at least 4 LAGs and in Serbia, so it may happen that they come to us as well. It is important that as many LAGs as possible respond to these meetings, because it is in our interest to prepare and send the accreditation package for Measure 5 as soon as possible in order to reach the situation of announcing the first public call for Measure 5 as soon as possible. The problem consists of in the not yet closed IPARD II program as well as in the limited capacities of the Administration for the technical preparation of the accreditation capacity for Measure 5.
In front of the Partnership for Rural Development Sremski Karlovci – Kovilj, Nebojša Gavrilović and Rajko Marinković attended and actively participated in the workshop.