May 8, 2018 - By the decision of the European Commission (December 2010) in which Montenegro gained the status of a candidate country for European Union membership, the state has, at its disposal, certain funds from the Rural component development under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance – IPARD (in Montenegrin: “Instrument za pretpristupnu pomoć ruralnog razvoja”).
The project is financed with the financial support of the European Union through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance Component I – Help in Transition Assistance and Institution Building. The main focus of the project is to provide help to the Montenegrin authorities in managing non-refundable financial support according to the main rules of the European Union’s IPARD. Also, the project aims to improve the productivity of the agricultural economy. The IPARD project is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in cooperation with the World Bank. The granted amount of funds from the Rural component development under this public call is 17 million EUR.
Representatives of the Directorate for Rural Development and the Directorate for IPARD payments of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have organized workshops for all employees who provide counseling services in the areas of crop production and livestock, in three Montenegrin cities: Podgorica, Nikšić and Danilovgrad. The focus of the workshops was to introduce the employees of counseling services to all relevant information about providing help to potential users in order for them to prepare the necessary documentation and to apply for public calls.
Copyrights: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development website
The funds for the IPARD program are awarded through a public call, published in print and electronic media, on the MARD website, the Counseling service in plant production and the Counseling service for livestock selection. The supporting funds are granted for the processing of agricultural and fishery products, for which specific conditions are set that potential support beneficiaries must satisfy to gain support through the public call.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has announced the information that “acceptable” costs of competing for the projects are being set between 40.000–1.500.000 EUR. The IPARD project may support up to 50% of approved costs. Additional support funds of 10% can be awarded for a part of accepted values which are related to waste management, by-products, wastewater treatment and waste utilization. The support is obtained after the entire investment is realized.
The main subjects of the investment are: construction, reconstruction or equipping of facilities for reception and processing, procurement of equipment, machinery, arrangement of infrastructure at the production unit, investments in construction, reconstruction or equipping of plants for the production of energy from renewable sources, introduction of food safety system and product quality management.
During the workshops, the representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have announced that all goods and services purchased with the supporting funds must comply with the EU procedures and conditions defined by the public call.
