Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Criteria for opening Chapter 1 met, European Commission confirms

Belgrade, 6 February 2023

The Ministry of Economy announced that after more than eight years of talks with representatives of the European Commission and the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia, the European Commission informed the Ministry of Economy that the criteria for opening Chapter 1 – Free Movement of Goods have been met.

Minister of Economy Rade Basta thanked all associates from the Ministry of Economy who participated in the negotiations for the opening of this chapter, Minister for European Integration Tanja Miscevic as well as Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and all members of the government.

Chapter 1 – Free Movement of Goods represents the most significant and legislatively demanding chapter. Serbia achieves the largest exchange of goods with the EU countries, and therefore the "green light" for the opening of this chapter is a historic moment for our people and our country, Basta said and added that he will be part of the negotiating group.

The Ministry of Economy manages the work of the Negotiating Group for the Free Movement of Goods and will start the procedure for the adoption of strategic documents by the government of Serbia, which are the criteria for opening the chapters: Strategies and Action Plan for the Harmonised Area, Action Plan for the Area of Motor Vehicles and Action Plan for the Non-Harmonised Area.

After the adoption of the strategic documents, the European Commission will prepare a draft report on the fulfillment of the criteria for opening the chapter, which it will present to the EU Council. That will be a formal confirmation by the EU that the criteria for opening negotiations in this chapter have been met.

The essence of the chapter on the free movement of goods consists of technical regulations that regulate the quality infrastructure (which includes standardisation, accreditation, metrology, conformity assessment and market surveillance).

On the other hand, within this chapter there is also a non-harmonised area that represents the national regulations of the member states.

With the completion of negotiations in this area, full compliance of domestic regulations with European legislation related to products will be ensured.

Achieving complete compliance of domestic regulations with EU regulations will ensure respect for one of the basic freedoms of the single market – the free movement of goods.

This principle means that trade in products from one part of the European Union in any other must be carried out without restrictions.

Accordingly, Serbian products will move on the European market without obstacles.

On the day of accession to the EU, Serbia will become part of the EU internal market, where the same rules apply to all products of the member states.

The free movement of goods will enable quality Serbian products to be placed on the European market, and at the same time, quality European products to be placed on the Serbian market, the announcement states.