Refund requests for EU farming aid to be processed within 45 days

Newsroom 13/01/2012 | 13:49

Romanian farmers could receive the refunds for EU farming aid faster after the government has announced that reimbursement requests will have to be processed within 45 days by fund management authorities before they are sent to the European Commission. This is the same deadline as in the case of structural and cohesion funds.

The decision was taken by an inter-ministry committee on European funds for agriculture, which includes Prime Minister Emil Boc, Agriculture Minister Valeriu Tabara and EU Affairs Minister Leonard Orban. The committe has also analyzed ways to reach this year’s target absorption of EUR2.5 billion, through the three agriculture-related components – the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, European Agricultural Guarantee Fund and European Fishing Fund.

This year, the government aims to attract around EUR6 billion in EU funds, corresponding to an absorption rate of 20 percent.