On its session held yesterday, the Government of Serbia adopted the revised National Programme for the Adoption of the acquis (NPAA), which is a detailed, multiannual plan for the harmonization of Serbian regulations with the EU acquis communautaire, as well as a plan to build the institutions necessary for the implementation of such a harmonized legal order. This programme will be realized by 2018, which is the deadline that has been established for making our country fully prepared for the accession to the European Union.
Representatives of all state authorities and organizations, regulatory and independent bodies, as well as representatives of the National Assembly, participated in the preparation of NPAA. NPAA has been designed to connect the European legislation and Serbian legal order, in order to monitor the pace, scope and quality of the harmonization of legislation at every time. The European Union law has been divided into 35 chapters in accordance with the competences of state authorities, which allows regular planning and monitoring of their legislative activities.
The plans stated in NPAA will be used as a basis for defining the measures and activities in the continuation of the negotiations on the accession of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union. After a new stage in the process of Serbia's accession to the EU, the entering into force of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement on 1st September 2013, as well as the start of the negotiations on EU membership with the Intergovernmental Conference in Brussels on 21st January 2014, it was necessary to prepare the First Revision of NPAA, which was adopted in February 2013. This has enabled this document to reflect, in the new situation, specific plans relating to all the obligations and reforms that Serbia shall realize in order to fulfil the criteria for EU membership.
With a view to a continuous development of the acquis, NPAA is expected to be further harmonized with any modification of the EU law through occasional revisions in the future.
The Government has given the Serbian European Integration Office the task to continue submitting regular quarterly reports on the implementation of NPAA, as it has been doing so far.
The National Programme for the Adoption of the acquis represents a continuation of the National Programme for Integration (NPI), which was realized in the period from 2008 to 2012, and it ensures the continuity of the process of the harmonization of Serbian legislation with the acquis.
