A meeting of the Subcommittee for Internal Market and Competitiveness was held on December 1, in Brussels. On the behalf of the Republic of Serbia, the meeting was chaired by Ms Vesna Kovač, State Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications. The EC Delegation was led by Ms Catherine Wendt, Head of the unit for Serbia in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Policy.

The Subcommittee for Internal Market and Competitiveness, co-chaired by the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, is one of eight subcommittees for the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Serbia, which meetings are held once annually, with the aim to discuss the issues regarding the implementation of the Agreement.

This was the fourth meeting of the Subcommittee after the entry into force of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, in September 2013. The representatives of the relevant state institutions of the Republic of Serbia presented the situation in the fields of intellectual property rights, competitiveness and state aid, public procurement, right to establishment and free service provision, right of companies, accounting, audit, financial services, public health and consumer’s protection.

After the presentation of the activities realised since the last meeting of the Subcommittee, held in December 2016, the representatives of the institutions of the Republic of Serbia responded to the questions of the representatives of the European Commission, who also made comments, and gave recommendations for future work.

The general impression of the representatives of the European Commission is that a significant progress has been achieved in almost all the issues discussed in the meeting.