Serbia

Political relations

France supports the political and economic reforms undertaken by Serbia since the turn of the century and its efforts towards EU accession. The French-Serbian bilateral relationship is partly enshrined in an Agreement on strategic partnership and cooperation signed on 8 April 2011. The President of the French Republic’s visit to Belgrade on 15-16 July 2019 gave fresh impetus to relations between the two countries, in line with the objectives of the French Strategy for the Western Balkans which was adopted in April 2019.

Economic relations

In 2021, trade between France and Serbia reached €1.2 billion, including €639 million in exports and €578 million in imports. Trade has tripled since 2010, the date that the EU-Serbia Interim Agreement on trade and trade-related matters entered into force. The trade balance, which recorded a slight deficit in 2017, evened out in 2018 and since 2019 has shown a surplus for France, reaching €60.7 million in 2021. While the Covid-19 pandemic reduced our trade by 3.4% between 2019 and 2020, the recovery now looks well underway, with trade growing by 13.9% between 2020 and 2021.

FDI flows in Serbia have been steadily increasing since 2012, climbing from €753 million in 2012 to €3.63 billion in 2021 (up 23% on 2020, where they fell sharply due to the Covid-19 crisis). In the 2010-2021 period, the main investors in Serbia were the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Russia, Luxembourg, China, Switzerland and France; these eight countries accounted for two-thirds of the stock invested since 2010. For France, 2021 saw a marked recovery of FDI flows to Serbia, which had fallen in 2020 following a large increase in 2018 (major concession contracts for Vinci Airports and Suez in Belgrade). The withdrawal of Crédit Agricole in 2021 should be noted, which will be reflected in the 2022 figures. The main French investors are Vinci, Suez, Schneider Electric, Michelin, Crédit Agricole, Tarkett, Savencia, Atos and Lactalis.