Pristina, 18 March 2016 – Representatives of the Kosovo authorities and the European Commission met in Pristina to discuss the developments in the areas of agriculture, rural development, forestry, fisheries and food safety. The discussion was held in the framework of the Stabilisation and Association Process Dialogue.
The discussion covered a wide range of topics, such as enhancing import controls on food and animals; strengthening food safety inside Kosovo; systematisation of data entry into the animal identification, registration and movement database; agriculture import and export statistics and the performance of Kosovo’s institutions responsible for agriculture and food safety.
Kosovo’s consumers deserve to eat food of the same safety and quality as the citizens of the European Union. The Commission outlined that for this to happen, EU standards need to be applied at all levels: in the control of imports and exports, in the registration of animals, in what practices are allowed in growing food, in the way that food is processed, and then labelled and sold. A number of control bodies are involved in guaranteeing those standards: health officials, inspectors, veterinarians, laboratories. These have all been set up in Kosovo and are in the process of enforcing EU standards.
Participants also discussed Civil Society Organisations’ key messages on a number of topics, such as Kosovo’s nascent organic agriculture.
Forestry was also discussed, as Kosovo attempts to balance the economic benefits from such an extensive resource with the need to preserve these forests for the future. The meeting considered how to best focus the EU assistance to this sector. Agriculture and food safety have benefited from substantial EU assistance so far, including under a number of rural grants schemes; this will continue to be a priority in the future.
Background information
The SAP Dialogue is a framework under which the European Union and the Kosovo administration regularly discuss technical and policy issues in relation to the European agenda. The SAP Dialogue monitors and accompanies Kosovo’s delivery on reforms, and identifies how the EU can assist in this process. Sectorial and plenary SAP Dialogue meetings are co-chaired by the European Union and the government. Each meeting results in jointly agreed follow-up actions to be taken by the Kosovo authorities.
There are seven areas covered in sectorial meetings and they follow closely the format of the dialogue that the EU has with other candidates and potential candidates. These seven sectors are:
– Justice, Freedom and Security
– Innovation, Information Society, Social Policy, Education and Culture
– Trade, Industry, Customs and Taxation
– Internal Market, Competition, Consumer and Health Protection
– Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, Food Safety
– Transport, Environment, Energy, Regional Development
– Economic and Financial Issues, Statistics
The time between the meetings allows for the implementation of the recommendations and agreed follow-up actions. The conclusions of the meetings are public and available on the EU Office’s website and http://www.mei-ks.net.
Last modified: August 11, 2022
