Benefits of future CAP take shape for Romanian farmers

Young Romanians looking to set up a farming business in rural areas could receive up to EUR 70,000 non-refundable EU support starting 2014, up from EUR 40,000 at present, said Romanian agriculture minister Daniel Constantin last week during a Mediafax conference.

In addition to this, they will also receive 25 percent higher direct payments during the first 5 years but this will be limited to 25 hectares of land, explained the minister. In order to qualify for this support scheme farmers have to be no older than 40 and start a farming related business in a rural area.

This is only one of the changes which the minister hopes the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), which will overlap the EU 2014 – 2020 financial framework, will bring for Romanian farmers.

Negotiations over the 2014 – 2020 CAP reform are still being carried in Brussels and the final version is expected to come into force on January 1, 2014, or by halfyear, said Constantin highlighting some of the progress achieved so far.

The direct payment support scheme or Single Area Payment System (SAPS) will be maintained at least until 2020 and sums received by Romanian farmers will gradually increase. If this year the direct payment per hectare for Romanian farmers is EUR 139 (only EU money, national contribution not included), this will gradually grow to EUR 196 per hectare in 2020, explained the agriculture minister.

Overall, for the 2014 – 2020 period Romania will receive a total of EUR 10.5 billion for direct payments and another EUR 7.15 billion for rural development. Although the future CAP will allow member states greater flexibility in transferring funds from rural development to direct payments, Constantin said that this is unlikely to happen in Romania’s case as although the funds received for both pillars “are unsatisfactory”, “investments remain a priority”. The authorities hope to make up for this by supplementing the sums received from the EU for direct payments with a national contribution which “depending on the budget” could be between EUR 30 and EUR 50 per hectare, said the official.

Another measure which has been discussed in the Ministries’ Council and which has stirred considerable debate in Romania is the capping of direct payments to large farmers to EUR 300,000 regardless of the surface they cultivate. Romania was one of the countries which disagreed with this measure and the solution could be the application of individual capping versions for each member state, said Constantin. In the case of Romania and other countries the contribution could be capped at EUR 600,000 but this remains to be discussed and negotiated internally over the next months. Nevertheless, the discussion has revealed a great polarization of the Romanian agriculture as although the largest Romanian farmers represent only one percent of the 1.08 million farmers who receive direct payments in the country, they cash almost 50 percent of the annual financial SAPS allocation which this year for example will amount to EUR 1.5 billion.

Other CAP reform propositions which have been discussed in Brussels include mandatory greening measures and the definition of the active farmer, a measure meant to offer financial support to actual farmers and take off the beneficiaries’ list institutions such as airports which until now could apply for farming related support from the EU for the maintenance of green spaces which were classified as pastures.

Simona Bazavan