Agriculture Minister Petre Daea said on Wednesday that the period when farmers can submit their requests for subsidies from the Agriculture Payments and Intervention Agency (APIA), March 1 – May 15, will not be extended by even one minute.
Daea said: “If any farmer, for any reasons, can’t make the deadline for the submission of requests so that they can be introduced in the registration process, they will be left out of the project, and without any subsidies. It is mandatory that any farmer who receives a notice from APIA to go in at the set time, to avoid crowding and queues. In other words, let’s not waste any time. The period to submit requests will not be extended by even one minute, because this period sets all the procedures that follow.”
The minister also asked mayors in Romania to support farmers with their submissions, noting that the registration process for APIA subsidies involves financial efforts. He also said that last year there were over 855,000 applications and estimated that all the paperwork this year will use up 324 tonnes of paper.
On the subject of last year’s payments, Daea highlighted the fact that it was the first time when they were given out on time, and that the total amounts went up to EUR 2.7 billion. He also promised that the outstanding payments from last year will be paid to farmers by March 31.