The Impact of EU Norms and Policies on Consumer Protection Enforcement in Serbia

Pursuant to its 2008 Stabilization and Association Agreement governing the process of EU integration, Serbia is obliged to align its consumer protection standards (including those related to enforcement) with those of the EU. This article considers the overall approach to enforcement of consumer law in Serbia, focussing in particular on the extent to which EU enforcement principles have been successfully exported to Serbia and whether the goals of EU consumer policy have been achieved. It argues that the incorporation of EU norms has brought fundamental changes to Serbian enforcement mechanisms at a formal level, such as in relation to mediation processes as well as the introduction of injunctions for the protection of collective consumer interests. In practice, however, the impact of this incorporation is quite limited. A number of factors that restrict the practical effectiveness of the mediation processes and injunctions required by EU law are explored in the article, including weak sanctions, excessive reliance on poorly resourced consumer organizations, absence of a business culture of compliance or a sophisticated and determined consumer protection enforcement culture sufficiently grounded in expertise, as well as an overarching political, legislative, and institutional instability. These factors also undermine the general aim of EU policy to achieve effective consumer protection enforcement in the Serbian context

Mycobiota of Serbian wheat grain in 2010

This research focused on the assessment of the infection level of sampled wheat grains with phytopathogenic fungi. The samples were taken from the localities Rimski Šančevi and Sombor. The research investigated the impact of localities to intensity of fungal infection by fungi from genus Fusarium and Alternaria. Isolates from genus Fusarium and Alternaria were determined to species level. Pathogenicity of Fusarium and Alternaria isolates from different localities to wheat seedlings was also established. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III 46005: Genetic divergence, technological quality and storage of cereals and pseudocereals from organic production