8th EU-BiH Subcommittee Meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries

The 8^th Subcommittee meeting on agriculture and fisheries, including food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary issues, between the EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina took place on 19^th November 2024. Representatives from the European Commission (Commission) and from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) authorities discussed the latest developments in these areas. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Slobodan Cvijanović (Assistant Minister, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH) and Ms. Heinke Veit (Deputy Head of Unit D.4 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, from Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, European Commission).

In light of the March 2024 EUCO decision to open accession negotiations, the Commission encouraged Bosnia and Herzegovina to continue with necessary reforms, step-up considerably their efforts to enhance institutional and administrative capacities, speed-up legislative alignment and development of countrywide strategies as well as to improve coordination in all areas.  The Commission stressed the importance of fully respecting the provisions of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), in particular those regarding the trade concessions made by the parties and prior notification / consultation about any proposed trade restrictions.

As regards agriculture and rural development– one of the key sectors for the competitiveness of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s economy and for local development – the Commission took note of the adoption of the Strategic plan for rural development of BiH 2023-2027. It expressed disappointment that a countrywide multiannual and multi-budgeted agriculture and rural development strategy has not yet been implemented , and that  support measures across the country are not yet harmonised . The Commission regretted that no concrete progress on the alignment to the EU Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) had been made. The Commission encourages BiH to make use of available TAIEX support and IPA assistance to work on harmonisation in this area and fully align with the acquis. While acknowledging the strong collaboration among the statistical institutions in BiH, the Commission recalls the importance of implementing the Agricultural Census. Functional and efficient sectoral reforms are necessary to catch up with changes on EU level and to allow BiH to advance on its EU accession path.

In the areas of food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary issues, the Commission reiterated the need to align state-level laws on food safety and veterinary matters with the latest developments of the EU acquis, notably, regarding food, animal health, animal welfare and plant health law and official controls, as well as to continue upgrading the institutional and administrative capacity, including inspection services. It is of outmost importance that Bosnia and Herzegovina improves its central databases in order to improve the planning and implementation of relevant animal health measures, as well as to fully setup the central animal identification and registration system. The Commission regretted to see no progress in the setting up of the country’s system of national reference laboratories as required by the acquis and the state Food, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Laws to ensure a consolidated and harmonised legal framework across Chapter 12.

The Commission recalled that the fisheries policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina need to be harmonised across the country and be aligned with the EU acquis. The Commission urges BiH to prepare and adopt its countrywide fisheries and aquaculture strategy and the Action Plan for sector acquis approximation, including the alignment of the Common Market Organisation Regulation and the Data Collection Framework which is of crucial importance to ensure alignment with the Common Fishery Policy and further EU assistance. Bosnia and Herzegovina should also strengthen its administrative and financial capacities necessary for implementing fisheries policy and control measures; Further efforts are necessary in ensuring a countrywide harmonised collection of data and statistics in this area.