“Serbia is Hungary’s priority partner in the Western Balkan region with regard to agricultural relations”, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas told Hungarian news agency MTI on Monday in Budapest after having met with his Serbian counterpart, Minister of Agriculture and Environment Snežana Bogosavljević Bošković.
Minister Fazekas stressed that Serbian accession to the EU was one of the most important topics of the meeting, in addition to which the Hungarian Land Act and related experiences, the distribution of funding to small-scale producers and the issue of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were also discussed. With relation to the latter, Mr. Fazekas noted that hoped Serbia would be able to make good use of Hungarian legislative practices.
Download
According to Mr. Fazekas, cooperation with our southern neighbour is also important from a national policy perspective.
The Minister emphasised that Serbia’s accession to the European Union is in the preparation phase with relation to which Serbia has cooperated with Hungary on several concrete programmes within the field of agriculture. The two countries would like to continue this cooperation in future, for instance within the fields of animal health, the development of institution systems and assistance in drawing down EU funding.
Download
The Hungarian Minister of Agriculture also mentioned that as far as he is aware several Serbian districts have already indicated that they do not want anything to do with GMO products. Mr. Fazekas briefed his Serbian colleague on Hungary’s standpoint, according to which Hungary has included the country’s GMO-free status in its constitution and is playing a proactive role on the issue in Europe. He expressed his hope that Serbia would be able to make good use of Hungary’s legislative practices to protect its food production from genetically modified organisms.
He also mentioned that both parties would like to see more cooperation between the two countries’ enterprises, in view of the fact that there is still much untapped potential within this field. This is important to Hungary with regard to both exports and imports, and also with relation to joint appearance on third markets, he added.
Download
Snežana Bogosavljević Bošković stressed that Hungarian experiences within the fields of agriculture and environmental protection are very useful to Serbia during the EU accession procedure, adding that the parties would like to exploit all possibilities provided by the accession process and Hungary’s experiences are of special interest with regard to the drawing down of funding, legal harmonisation and food safety.
The Serbian Minister said that cross-border cooperation between the two countries, such as between Vojvodina and Hungary’s southern counties of Csongrád, Bács-Kiskun abnd Békés, was also extremely important.
Mr. Fazekas also indicated that his Serbian colleague had invited him to make an official visit to Serbia, which is likely to take place within the next few months. Until then, cooperation between the two countries will continue, especially at expert level, which will result in cooperation within the fields of agriculture and the environment forging even stronger links, he added.
(Ministry of Agriculture)
