The Agency for Restructuring
and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA)

On 6 April 2022, in the headquarters of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture, representatives of Poland, Lithuania and France signed an agreement on the establishment of
a consortium which will implement the Twinning project in Serbia. Its aim is to provide Serbia, EU candidate country, with substantive knowledge on the functioning and organisation of agricultural markets in the Community.

The signatories of the agreement on starting the realisation of the so-called Twinning programme for Serbia are the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture, the agricultural paying agencies and ministries of agriculture of Lithuania and France. ARMA is the leader of this consortium.

- Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation is active in the field of exchanging knowledge with other countries in the form of conferences, study visits, internships and bilateral meetings. Our rich experience has been used by many countries, including the newest EU Member States, such as Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, the EU candidates and associated countries, as well as countries from outside the Community which aspire to apply EU agricultural standards - emphasised Halina Szymańska, President of ARMA.

- The agreement on cooperation in the Twinning project for Serbia is for us not only a huge challenge, but also a responsibility. Our role is to help the Republic of Serbia to implement EU legislation in the agriculture area. Our involvement would not be possible without the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. - added the President of ARMA, giving the floor to Ryszard Bartosik, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

- On behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister Henryk Kowalczyk, I congratulate on the France, Lithuania and Poland consortium success. I would like to express my special appreciation to the employees of the institutions involved. When our country applied to join the Community, we also used the help of other experienced countries. I am glad that now our experts will be able to share their knowledge with Serbia that aspires to be the EU Member State - emphasized Ryszard Bartosik.

Partners from Lithuania and France also expressed their congratulations. – I would like to thank the leaders from Poland and France for the cooperation. Thanks to this cooperation we were able to sign the important agreement today. I appreciate your experience and wish us all good luck in further actions – said Aleksandras Muzikevičius, the President of the Lithuanian Paying Agency, who presented the President of ARMA with a symbolic statuette. Jean-Luis Buer, the Director of Audit and Control in the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food, added – This project is the next one in which France participates. This is the first time that we are forming the consortium in such a composition. I hope that together we will manage to support Serbia in its pre-accession efforts.

During the official part of the meeting, ARMA presented the IT system prepared by its IT department which will facilitate everyday cooperation. – The Agency is working extensively in the field of digitisation and I hope that our knowledge can be used to maximum effect on this occasion. The tool we have developed allows all participants of the programme to work simultaneously, despite the distances between us - said Dariusz Olkiewicz, the Vice-President of ARMA. Whereas the Project Leader Dawid Ciupak talked about the details of the IT system.

The event was also attended by Tomas Orlickas – the Deputy General Director of the Lithuanian Paying Agency, Guillaume Laurent - the representative of the French Paying Agency France Agri Mer. The meeting was conducted by Emilia Godlewska – the Deputy Director of the Analysis and Reporting Department at ARMA, and Monika Zielińska – the Director of the Premium Schemes Department at ARMA was responsible for the translation.

The Twinning programme is funded by the European Commission. Thanks to the programme countries which candidate to the European Union can receive substantive help from countries that are already members of the Community. Over the next two years, experts from Poland, France and Lithuania will pass comprehensive knowledge and experience in the field of the functioning of agricultural markets, legal and administrative regulations which are important for Serbia's future membership in the EU. 1.8 million euros have been provided for the implementation of the programme.

Two entities entered the competition to select a consortium that is to implement the Twinning project for Serbia. A competitor for the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture and agricultural institutions from Lithuania and France was a consortium consisting of paying agencies from Austria, Italy and Hungary. After the hearing, which took place on 13 January 2022, representatives of the European Commission and Serbia decided that ARMA, together with the Lithuanians and the French, would implement this project. This is not the first time when the Agency shares its experience and knowledge gained during the eighteen years of EU membership. So far, Poland has participated in five Twinning projects: twice for Moldova and Azerbaijan and once for Croatia. ARMA experts also participated in the project for Romania. Never before has the Agency been a project leader.