Romania will be among the EU member states that will receive a significant amount of additional EU funds within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and cohesion policy, EU agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos said this week at the end of his visit to Romania. The announcement comes after the European Commission adopted the EU’s draft budget for 2014-2020.
Agriculture continues to be the sector that will receive the largest amount of money – EUR 386.9 billion out of a total of EUR 1.025 billion could be available to European farmers starting 2014. However, the Multi-Annual Financial Framework for 2014-2020 will bring some changes. “There will be certain criteria for the use of the funds which will be much clearer than before,” said the commissioner during a conference on agriculture organized by Forum Invest this week.
Out of the entire budget for agriculture, EUR 281.1 billion will be allocated through direct payments, which will continue to be at the heart of the CAP, said the official. Another EUR 89 billion will be available to member states through rural development programs, and for the first time EUR 4.5 billion will be dedicated to R&D in agriculture. EUR 3.5 billion will be allocated to emergencies like alleviating the economic effects of the recent accusations that cucumbers from Spain had caused an E.coli outbreak in Germany.
Simona Bazavan