Montenegro is leading good politics when it comes to agriculture and rural development and we have capacity to meet very demanding requirements in the accession process. Still, we face great challenges, there is still a lot to do, both for agriculture producers and the Ministry, said Danijela Stolica, director general of Directorate for agriculture of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and negotiator for Chapters 11, 12 and 13, in an interview for Glasnik.
Montenegro has recently started negotiations on Chapter 11 – Agriculture and Rural Development (Chapter 12 – Food Safety and Chapter 13 – Fishing were previously opened). EU representatives estimated that Montenegrin administration and producers are in for hard work in order to be ready to ensure measures of Unified agricultural policy and get full benefits of membership in EU.
“By opening Chapter 11 in December last year we demonstrated that Montenegro has good policies in area of agriculture. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development must create and implement measures of Agro-budget, as well as MIDAS and IPARD programs. It also must be in compliance with Unified agricultural policy of EU”, Stolica said.
She said that Montenegro has accomplished to align its legislation in agriculture with European legislation, but the much bigger challenge is actual implementation of those regulations.
“In Chapter 11, focus is put on the establishing of systems for implementation of procedures and regulations from Unified agricultural policy. The most important thing is to introduce these regulations gradually, so that producers have time to adapt”, she explained.
It cannot be expected of producers to adapt easily and rapidly to new standards and policies,.
“They need time to adapt to changes, especially in legislation. Still, I would like to underline standards and regulations that producers in Montenegro must pay special attention to, such as quality policy. International market is full of agricultural and food products from mass production, so Montenegrin producers would have a hard time winning over the market”, Stolica said.
This is why we need to focus on reaching highest possible standards of quality based on traditional means of production.
“Producers have full support of the state and EU accession funds. We work to improve education, information and council of producers so that they would accept new standards as soon as possible, and make good use of accession funds”, Stolica said.
She reminded that 52 million EUR has been allocated from IPA funds to Montenegro for the following period.
“39 million will go to direct support of agriculture producers, while 13 million will be allocated to infrastructural and institutional capacities needed for all three chapters. We must be ready to use this support”, Stolica said.
In order to use EU funds most efficiently, Montenegro must strengthen existing and form new administration structures.
“Aside from Agency for payment, there is Integrational system of administration and control IAKS, as well as Network of accounting data on agricultural homesteads FADN. Agency for payment will be responsible to implement measures of Unified agricultural policy in Montenegro, starting with the day we join EU. In this phase Montenegro accredited IPARD Agency that is tasked with implementing IPARD programs of support. Agency for payment is a much more demanding structure and its accreditation will happen immediately prior to joining EU”, Stolica said.
She reminded that Agro-budget for 2017 is 31.540.092 EUR, which is 8.867.345 more than last year.
“From the national budget, 16.900.092,50 EUR has been allocated for agriculture. Of that, 15.300.000 EUR for development of agriculture, rural development and fishing. For measures of health care of animals, 1.380.000 EUR has been allocated, and for communal measures 220.092,50 EUR. The second part of the budget in the amount of 14.640.000 EUR are resources from EU accession funds (11.500.000) and other sources such as World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD. As you can see, our producers already have significant resources allocated from EU funds, and it is important to underline that once we join, those resources will increase”, Stolica said.
She said that the experience of other countries confirms that agriculture is one of the most demanding sectors, with a great number of requirements.
“EU membership is a great opportunity for sector of agriculture. How we use it depends on us. I would like to invite agriculture producers to work and unite. In order to efficiently use available resources and increase market competitiveness they need to cooperate and form organizations. It is important that this is understood as soon as possible”, Stolica said.
