The Committee members had a joint discussion on the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Plant Nutrition Products and Soil Enhancers, Bill amending and modifying the Food Safety Law, Bill amending and modifying the Law on Plant Protection Products, and the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Plant Health, submitted by the Government.

The bills were presented by Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Branislav Nedimovic. He said that all of the bills have undergone public discussion and were submitted into Assembly procedure in November of last year. Speaking of the Bill amending and modifying the Food Safety Law, Nedimovic said that since talks on Negotiation Chapter 12: Food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy are due to start, the Ministry would be focusing a lot of its attention on this issue, though that is not the sole reason these amendments and modifications to the Law need to be passed. The Bill clearly defines which duties concerning retail products are in the purview of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management and which in the purview of the Ministry of Health. The Minister said that the Bill places the Directorate for National Reference Laboratories in the position of control mechanism for all the other accredited food safety labs. Speaking of the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Plant Protection Products, he said that it regulates the registration of plant protection products and announced the introduction of a plant protection institute. The Bill amending and modifying the Law on Plant Health defines all the plant health entities comprising Serbia’s phytosanitary system. To better realize the plant health-related tasks, it defines the entities concerned with plant health in more detail, their duties and responsibilities and the conditions needed for them to defer tasks, said the Ministers.

Following a discussion the Committee members adopted all four of the bills and submitted four amendments to the Bill amending and modifying the Food Safety Law.

The Committee members also discussed how to speed up the payment of incentives by the Directorate for Agrarian Payments. The Committee Chairman said that he had a meeting with the Government to discuss the matter and that there are enough funds to pay the incentives and the Government could approve the staff needed at the Directorate to process a considerable number of the applications received.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Marjana Maras, Mladen Lukic, Olena Papuga, Zarko Bogatinovic, Veroljub Matic, Milorad Mircic, Radovan Jancic, Prof. Dr Miladin Sevarlic, Milija Miletic, Ognjen Pantovic, Zvonimir Djokic, Tijana Davidovac and Arpad Fremond.