A seminar on European standards in the field of consumer protection has been held

Under the TESTS project, a seminar has been held on the topic of “European Standards of Independent Parallel Testing of Edible Oil Quality”, which has been organised by the Consumers’ Association of Serbia (APOS), in cooperation with the Chamber of Economy of Vojvodina and European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina.

Opening the seminar, Predrag Novikov, Director of European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina, emphasised the importance of cooperating with partners from the European Union. “While accessing EU membership, we need to reform our business, and consumer protection is an area in which more sectoral policies intersect. AP Vojvodina submitted over 250 project proposals to apply for EU funds last year, and in the forthcoming period we are going to prepare some European projects together with APOS”, said Novikov.

The opening remarks were also made by Ljiljana Stanković, Assistant Minister of Trade and Services, Đorđe Bugarin, on behalf of the Chamber of Economy of Vojvodina and Edina Popov, Chairperson of Managing Board of Consumers’ Association of Serbia. Lela Tasić, Coordinator of TESTS Project, presented the project, whereas a German guest, BirgitRehlender, an expert on food testing of Stiftung Warentest, talked about specific methodologies for parallel testing of goods. To serve as a reminder, the application of the Law on Consumer Protection will commence 1 January 2011 and 15 key European directives in this field have been implemented in it. In addition, a package of trade laws is to allow the use of new pre-accession funds (IPA) next year.