Miladin Ševarlić

Miladin Ševarlić (Serbian Cyrillic: Миладин Шеварлић; born June 12, 1949) is an agricultural economist, professor of agriculture, and politician in Serbia. He has served in the National Assembly of Serbia since 2016 as an independent. Until February 2019, he was a member of the Dveri parliamentary group.

PhD

Miladin Ševarlić
Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia
Assumed office
3 June 2016
Personal details
Born (1949-06-12) 12 June 1949
Čačak, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
NationalitySerbian
Political partyIndependent
Alma materUniversity of Belgrade
OccupationProfessor, politician

Early life and academic career

Ševarlić was born in Čačak and raised in the neighbouring community of Preljina, in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He received a bachelor's degree (1973), a master's degree (1982), and a Ph.D. (1989) from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Agriculture and taught for several years at the same institution, becoming a full professor in 2001. He has published about three hundred scientific and professional papers and is known as one of the leading agricultural economists in Serbia. He retired from the University of Belgrade in 2014.[1]

Ševarlić as an opponent of genetically modified food and has argued that introducing genetically modified crops to Serbia will undermine local agriculture by creating a dependence on imported seeds.[2][3] In 2013, he argued that Serbia would "lose 500 million euros a year through purchase of genetically modified seeds" and urged that country to remain a GMO-free zone.[4] The following year, he noted that genetically modified soy products were being planted in different parts of Serbia as the result of smuggling and urged the government to bring criminal charges against the offenders.[5]

In 1999, while serving as executive chair of the Yugoslavian Association of Agricultural Economists, he signed an open letter to agricultural economists in other countries to oppose the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.[6]

Ševarlić urged the government of Serbia to invest one billion Euros in the food and agriculture sectors in 2014, arguing that this would revive the country's agricultural sector. He stated that Serbia could find investors for the export of its products, mainly to Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Africa.[7]

He is an opponent of Serbia's plans to permit the sale of agricultural lands to international buyers as a condition of joining the European Union (EU). In 2017, he was quoted as saying, "it is not even known whether and when [Serbia] will become a member of that union, thus the relationship with the EU may be considered neo-colonialism”.[8]

Ševarlić lives in the Belgrade municipality of Zemun.[9]

Political career

Ševarlić became the youngest ever councillor in the Belgrade Municipal Assembly at age eighteen, serving on the education and cultural council in 1967 during the mayoralty of Branko Pešić.[10]

He received seventh position on a combined electoral list of the Democratic Party of Serbia and Dveri as a non-party candidate in the 2016 Serbian parliamentary election and was elected when the list won thirteen members.[11] The election was won by the Serbian Progressive Party and its allies, and Ševarlić sits with the Dveri parliamentary group as an opposition member.

He is a member of the assembly's agriculture, forestry, and water management committee; a deputy member of the committee on the diaspora and Serbs in the region and the committee on the economy, regional development, trade, tourism, and energy; and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Russia, and Slovenia.[12] In 2017, he attracted media attention for reciting an anti-GMO song by the poet Ljubivoje Ršumović in the National Assembly.[13]

He left the Dveri parliamentary group in February 2019, after disagreeing with the party's boycott of the assembly.[14]

He received sixth position on a combined electoral list of the Healthy Serbia, and Better Serbia as a non-party candidate in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election.

References
  1. "Prof. dr Miladin M. Ševarlić - Biografija", Prvi Prvi Na Skali, accessed 20 June 2018.
  2. "Wise Broker - BELEX Morning Note - Jan 28, 2012 [sic]," Emerging Markets Broker Reports Central Eastern Europe, 28 January 2013.
  3. "'GMO Only Causes Problems': Serbia Maintains Import Ban Despite WTO Demands," Sputnik News Service, 20 February 2017.
  4. "Serbian expert warns against legislation allowing GMO," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 29 January 2013 (Source: Vecernje novosti website, Belgrade, in Serbian 27 Jan 13).
  5. "Serbian expert says genetically modified soy smuggled in through secret channels," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 4 April 2014 (Source: Blic website, Belgrade, in Serbian 1 Apr 14).
  6. "POĽNOHOSPODÁRSTVO - Juhoslovanskí agrárnici žiadajú o podporu," Slovenska Tlacova Agentura, 2 May 1999.
  7. "Serbia: EUR 1bn investment required for food and agriculture sectors," Esmerk Eastern European News, 28 June 2014.
  8. Julija Simić, "Serbia to limit sale of agricultural land to foreigners," EurActiv.com, 13 July 2017.
  9. MILADIN ŠEVARLIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 20 June 2018.
  10. "Zamenili me u porodilištu", Vesti, 22 April 2012, accessed 20 June 2018.
  11. Избори за народне посланике 2016. године » Изборне листе (ДВЕРИ - ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА СРБИЈЕ - САНДА РАШКОВИЋ ИВИЋ - БОШКО ОБРАДОВИЋ) Archived 2018-04-27 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 28 April 2017.
  12. MILADIN Prof. Dr SEVARLIC, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 20 June 2018.
  13. Jovana Štetin, "Ševarlić u Skupštini recitovao pesmu protiv GMO", N1, 14 November 2017, accessed 20 June 2018.
  14. "Dveri: Ševarlić ne prihvata odluku o bojkotu, nije više deo poslaničkog kluba", N1, 13 February 2019, accessed 6 March 2019.
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