On 16 May in Belgrade there was an official closing meeting of the EU twinning project whose aim was to strengthen the consumer protection system in Serbia. The meeting was attended by the UOKIK representatives, among others, who summarised the actions performed by the Authority experts.

The twinning is a programme which originated from the initiative of the European Commission and was subsidised by it. The project entitled “Strengthening the consumer protection system in Serbia as a response to new market challenges” has been carried out by UOKIK in consortium with Slovakia and Germany since June 2021. Its main beneficiary was the Ministry of Domestic and Foreign Trade. The underlying objective was to prepare Serbia to face both the commitments arising from the membership in the European Union as well as the challenges of the recent market.

As part of the project, UOKIK acted as a leader in two components: “New market challenges such as consumer protection in online transaction” and “Opportunities, resources and competence of the institutional consumer protection system”. In practice, the Authority was first and foremost responsible for actions related e-commerce and e-enforcement consisting in particular in supporting the projected legal changes and enforcement of the laws related to e-commerce. The Authority experts shared their knowledge and best practices related to institutional strengthening of the consumer protection system, including development of the model for cooperation with non-governmental consumer organisations as well as education aimed at increasing consumer awareness. The actions of the Authority comprised, among others, training sessions for officials, entrepreneurs, NGOs and holding research on the knowledge on consumer protection.

UOKIK is still present in the twinning project performed for the benefit of the Moroccan Competition Council as part of which it cooperates with its counterparts from Greece and Italy.