Farmers see EU accession as positive

Approximately 80 percent of Romanian farmers believe that EU accession will have a positive effect on Romanian agriculture but do not consider authorities to be efficient in protecting them from future EU competition, according to a poll conducted by Future Marketing.

An overwhelming majority (84.3 percent) of those interviewed would like to invest in modernization, while only 28.3 percent believe that European funds are accessed easily.

Regarding the SAPARD program, 71.7 percent of farmers believe the SAPARD program is hard to access.

Ioana Garlea, regional director for the Payment Agency for Rural Development and Fisheries (APDPR) in Alba Iulia, announced last month that tens of SAPARD financing contracts in six counties in the center of the country could risk being canceled, as the beneficiaries have not respected the terms imposed by the institution. In total, there are over 30 projects in the central region (which includes Alba, Brasov, Mures, Harghita, Covasna and Sibiu counties) that could lose financing, as beneficiaries are late on completion deadlines. Most projects amount to one million euros in financing. "Before we move on to sanctions we will try to give a second chance to each project. We hope they will conform and respect the terms so that we will not have to cancel the financing contracts," Garlea said.

Additionally, twelve SAPARD financing projects drafted by the local administrations from villages in the center of the country have been declared eligible by mistake by the APDPR. The confusion stirred quite a scandal, as most local administrations have spent significant amounts of money in updating feasibility studies they made in 2002.

The Future Marketing poll of 1,865 farmers has a margin of error of 2.7 percent.