The Bill was presented by State Secretary Jelena Blagojevic, representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. She said that the data collected in the Census would provide an overview of the state of agriculture in the Republic of Serbia, at the national and local level, and would be used as a basis for drafting and monitoring the realisation of strategic goals of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, as well as to generate important indicators for the assessment of the effectiveness of adopted measures, both at the national and local level. The Census will also provide data for the needs of international institutions and organizations - UN, Eurostat and others. In addition, in Serbia’s EU accession process, the census data is important for reporting on progress in several negotiation chapters. Finally, the results of the Census are important for the continuity and comparability with the results of previous structural surveys, as well as updating the framework for the conduct of sample agricultural research and obtaining quality data that will provide a realistic picture of agriculture in Serbia.

Following the presentation, the Committee members unanimously accepted the Bill on the 2023 Agriculture Census.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Elvira Kovacs, and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Samira Cosovic, Ljiljana Malusic, MA Danijela Vujicic, Goran Milic, Ana Miljanic, Viktor Jevtovic, Stanislava Janosevic, Vesna Rankovic, Predrag Rajic, Milan Radin, Nemanja Joksimovic, Vesna Markovic and Ana Pesic.