Foreign Investors Council conducts 6th visit to EU institutions in Brussels

With a series of successful meetings with representatives of the European Commission, the delegation the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) finalized its visit to Brussels, sixth in a row. Thus, the FIC continued to support the process of European integration of Serbia, being a reliable partner both to the Serbian Government and the European Union.

During a two-day visit, FIC delegation met with representatives of 8 directorate generals of the European Commission: NEAR, ECFIN, TAXUD, EMPL, TRADE, CNECT, SANTE and GROW. In addition, a meeting with the Serbian Ambassador to EU Ana Hrustanovic was also held.

At the meeting with Director for Western Balkans Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, FIC President Yana Mikhailova said that:

– Serbia continues steady but moderate progress in improvement of the business climate. The positive trend in conducting reforms is evident and the Foreign Investors Council as always offers concrete recommendations all directed towards even stronger economic growth and better standard of living for citizens.

Key goal is to continue and accelerate membership negotiations with EU as means to improve both business regulation and their implementation.

Special attention needs to be devoted to achieving sustainable fiscal consolidation (structural reforms, especially privatization and corporatization of state-owned enterprises) and improving law implementation, especially in tax area (strengthening tax administration).

In the discussions with EU institutions, the FIC underlined instrumental importance of reforms in the following fields: tax, labor, trade and inspection, food safety, real-estate, digitalization & e-commerce, pharma industry, and general legal framework (specifically bankruptcy and foreign exchange regulations).

As always, FIC underlined its readiness to continue and enhance its engagement to support EU accession process, through exchange and cooperation with both Serbian Government and EU institutions. European institutions were again encouraged to actively support Serbia, because mutual collaboration is needed for bringing Serbian market closer to EU rules and practices. Members of FIC delegation were: FIC President Yana Mikhailova, FIC Board Member Goran Pekez, FIC Executive Director Aleksandar Ljubic and Vice President of FIC Legal Committee Jelena Vukic-Suljagic.

FIC-Savet stranih investitora

Vlada Republike Srbije

Foreign Investors Council

Government of Republic of Serbia

European Union

NEAR

ECFIN

TAXUD

EMPL

TRADE

CNECT

SANTE

GROW

Genoveva Ruiz Calavera

Yana Mikhailova

Goran Pekez

Aleksandar Ljubic

Jelena Vukić Šuljagić