Review of EU money in Romanian agriculture: 10 bln Euro worth programs in 2013

The European Union programmes for agriculture, rural development and fisheries have brought the Romanian economy an extra EUR 10 billion during 2007 and 2013, of a total EUR 14.5 billion Romania has available and 2013 was the year of the 'inal battle for contracting all these funds, according to a report quoted by Agerpres.

2014-02-11 13:57:02

The Romanian beneficiaries got EUR 5.7 billion of the funds allotted by the EU under the National Programme for Rural Development alone, by early December, with the absorption rate being more than 63 percent.

The 2013 target of having EUR 2.5 billion drawn from the EU funds earmarked to agriculture and rural development is "nearly attained" and might even be passed following the last contracts signed these days, given that the agriculture minister, in early December, was saying the absorbed money amounted to more than EUR 2.35 billion

As far as the funds managed by the Agency for Agriculture Payments and Intervention (APIA) are concerned, the money paid from the European funds during 2007-2013 hit EUR 7.186 billion, with absorption rates higher than 87 percent and the money paid from the national budget totaled nearly RON 20 billion. This year alone, the APIA has paid the Romanian farmers more than EUR 1.851 billion and 2.74 billion lei from the national budget.

The National Programme for Rural Development (NPRD) leads the EU funds absorption

Romania has so far 63 percent rate of the absorption of the non-repayable funds extended under the NPRD, with such absorption rate having been improved by 14 percent in this year alone.
The contracting rate for the rural development funds hit 90 percent this year, but as much as 108 percent may be attained by contracting all the projects by year-end. As many as 19,500 projects were contracted this year alone, amounting to EUR 350 million, of a total 35,000 filed projects.

EU payments per area bring extra EUR 1.3 billion to the Romanian farmers accounts in 2013

As regards the payments made by the Agency for Agriculture Payments and Intervention (APIA) from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), Romania paid EUR 5.46 billion to the farmers or 88 percent of the total EUR 5.596 billion earmarked for 2007-2013. The European Commission has effectively repaid EUR 4.874 billion of the paid amounts, i.e. 87.09 percent of the total. Payments amounting to EUR 1.293 billion have been made this year alone.

A total of EUR 1.722 billion have been paid for the APIA-managed measures of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development or 72.46 percent. For the single area payment scheme (SAPS) earmarked for 2013, Romania has been assigned EUR 1.403 billion from EAGF and the farmers can get no more than EUR 139.17 per hectare. The Romanian Government has paid an extra EUR 21 per hectare from the national budget to this amount, which has raised the subsidy per area to EUR 160 a hectare.

Fisheries and aqua-culture: We still have to learn

Romania risks losing significant amounts of the EU funds assigned under the Operational Fisheries Programme, given that a meagre 27 percent has so far been absorbed of EUR 230.7 million assigned for funding the investments in fisheries, aqua-culture and processing during 2007-2013, but a dramatic cut in the funds is expected for the next financial schedule. Romania runs the risk of not committing some EUR 7-8 million this year alone.