Beneficiary: The Serbian European Integration Office

The Serbian European Integration Office (SEIO) is a key player in the SAp and the SAA negotiations. The decree establishing the SEIO (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 65/2006) set out the competences of the Office. It is a service organisation that is oriented directly towards the Government and its director is accountable to the Government and the Prime Minister (Art. 3 of the Decree).
The mandate of the SEIO covers the following tasks:

strategy for EU association and accession;
monitoring of and participating in the preparation and negotiation for the conclusion of the SAA, as well as for EU accession;
strategy, promotion and monitoring of the harmonisation of Serbian legislation with regulations and standards of the EU and public information thereupon;
coordination of translation of prioritised EU regulations into Serbian and coordination of translation of Serbian legislation into English;
assistance to ministries and special organisations in legal harmonisation and approximation process;
monitoring the realisation of obligations of ministries and special organisations in the process of EU association and accession;
capacity building of the public administration of the Republic of Serbia and staff training with the requirements of EU association and accession;
cooperation with specialized legal institutions;
analysis of economic aspects of harmonisation with the regulations and standards of the EU;
participation in and coordination of the process of programming the EU technical and financial assistance;
regular promotion of activities regarding EU association, accession process and cooperation with EU institutions;
cooperation with specialised international and domestic economic institutions, think tanks and non-governmental organizations.

Further Project Partners: Line Ministries, the National Assembly, the Constitutional Court and Other Relevant State Authorities

Other project partners are those ministries and state bodies which bear the responsibility in the area of legal harmonisation process that the PLAC project aims to cover (“line ministries”), the National Assembly, and the Constitutional Court.
The new Law on Ministries (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 48/07), defined the powers of governmental institutions in the following manner:

The responsibility for public procurement, state aid as well as for financial services (shared with the National Bank of Serbia) will rest with the Ministry of Finance.
Regarding technical standards and regulations, the main partner will be the Ministry of Economy, and Regional Development, along with the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Trade and Services.
Regarding the personal data protection, the main partner will be the Ministry of Justice - according to information received from SEIO (as resulting from the meeting between SEIO, Secretariat for Legislation, Ministry of Interiors, and Ministry of Justice) .

In addition to above mentioned line ministries, the project team and designated experts will also maintain cooperation with the National Assembly – especially with the Committee on EU Integration and the EU Department – as well as with the Constitutional Court.
Other key institutions in the legislative process of the Government of Serbia (e.g. the Secretariat for Legislation) and economic operators, represented by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and its EU Department are also considered as important partners.