Project final conference to be held in Belgrade on 26 March

The final conference of the PLAC III project will be held in Belgrade on Tuesday, 26 March 2024. On that occasion, the results of the project will be presented.

Minister for European Integration Tanja Miščević, Head of the EU Delegation in Serbia Ambassador Emanuele Giaufret, project Team Leader Andrej Engelman and Key Legal Expert Zoran Sretić will address the conference. The conference will be held in the hall of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Serbia.

PLAC III started in January 2019. The planned duration of the project of 30 months (until July 2021) was suspended in the spring of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic for more than two months, and then extended twice – the first time until February 2023 and then until April 2024. The entire implementation period is 60 months.

PLAC III is the fifth project in a series that provides legal assistance to the EU accession process and the negotiation process, which makes PLAC one of the EU-funded projects with the longest “tradition” in Serbia. By its nature, it has a special place in the wide range of EU projects implemented in Serbia, because it has strategic importance on the way to the EU and enables a legal basis for the introduction of European standards in all spheres of life.

With its activities, the project covered 14 Negotiating Chapters (chapters 1, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 27, 28, 32 and 33). A total of 189 experts from 20 European countries were hired, the vast majority of whom are from EU member states, but experts from Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia also were hired. As many as 4,620 expert working days were invested in working with user institutions and providing support for harmonising Serbian legislation with Union acquis, as well as strengthening the institutional capacities of relevant national structures for successfully conducting accession negotiations.

Project activities were carried out through direct work with beneficiary institutions on the harmonisation of legislation, as well as through the organisation of workshops, trainings, seminars and two study visits to EU member states (Italy and Slovenia). Through the media briefings “EU for you – what European standards bring to Serbia”, the project strived to bring the concrete benefits of joining the EU to the wider public.

The project budget amounts to EUR 5,423,220. The project is being implemented by a consortium led by DMI Associates in collaboration with Eastern Bridge and GiZ.