Romanian farmers in for windfall
BUCHAREST – Romania will be ready to receive millions of euros in direct payments to farmers after joining the European Union next year, Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur said yesterday. Romania has the second-largest agricultural sector among its ex-communist peers after Poland, and Brussels has warned it that a slow pace of farm reform and inefficient administration could prevent the Black Sea state from fully benefiting from EU aid. The wealthy bloc had similar concerns about Poland before its 2004 entry but in fact the transfer of funds was much smoother than expected. «The workload is very tough, but we will do our homework by January 1, 2007, when we join (the EU),» Flutur told a news conference, adding that the first chunk of direct aid for next year will amount to 440 million euros. In a 2005 report, the EU said it was concerned that paying agencies, the local administration and control systems in Romania, will not be fully functional by the time of accession, making it difficult for farmers to access the Common Agricultural Policy direct payments. Just under half of Romania’s 22 million people work in the countryside. But 16 years after the collapse of communism, Romania’s agriculture, producing 15 million tons of grains a year, is marred by chronic inefficiency with many peasants still working their land with horse-drawn plows. The EU’s direct payments to Romanian farmers are expected to rise gradually to about 705 million euros a year by 2010. Romania has hired 1,000 civil servants to work for the payments agency and explain CAP procedures to farmers. A list of farms eligible for EU aid is being drafted and the process will be completed by the end of March, Flutur said. «Until August, we will have a total of 5,000 people working there (at the direct payments agency). We estimate that 1.5-1.6 million farms owning more than 1 hectare of farmland would be eligible,» he said.
