Romanian Agriculture, Penniless And Forgotten

• Farmers may not receive State aid in 2010 as the European Commission has not been notified and the dismissed Government cannot do so • The stake: over 1 billion RON • Parliament receives on the same day two different draft laws regulating the same subject • The authors accuse each other of plagiarism

Next year could be catastrophic for the Romanian agriculture, according to leading farming organisations interviewed by BURSA.

Over 70 per cent of the small- and medium-sized farms could be closed as a result of the crisis and the authorities" lack of involvement, Agrostar Federation President Stefan Nicolae told BURSA. According to him, approximately 90 per cent of the national agriculture is dependent on subsidies, so any decrease in subsidies could cause a gridlock.

State aid to agricultural entities has exceeded 1 billion RON this year, according to data of the Ministry of Agriculture released to BURSA. Even so, results are not satisfactory, as insufficient and sometimes delayed funds caused the crops to be 30 per cent smaller. Considering this, a reduction in the State aid for agriculture next year could have dramatic effects.

Moreover, the current State aid schemes will be replaced next year by new forms of support, in line with European requirements, which do not necessarily accommodate Romania"s specific priorities.

Nevertheless, in mid-November 2009, Romania does not yet have the legal framework required for the new State aid schemes, as the Ministry of Agriculture and the Government are late in preparing the legal package.

"For the time being, Romania does not have any legal grounds to disburse State aid to agriculture in 2010," Viorel Matei, President of the National Federation of Agricultural Producers in Romania (FNPAR) told BURSA. He emphasized that "we are the only country in the EUR that has not made the notifications about the new payment systems."

In the best case, the first payments of State aid will be made starting in mid-2010, as any form of State aid must be notified to the European Commission at least six months in advance.

No official modification concerning State aid for next year has been sent to the Commission so far, as informal talks remain the only steps taken in this direction, Ministry of Agriculture representatives admitted.

"We are not prepared as much as we should have been by now in organising aid for 2010," said Petru Daea, Chairman of the Agricultural Committee of the Senate.

• Parliament divided over State aid

The Ministry of Agriculture has prepared two draft laws to regulate the matter of State aid and harmonization with European legislation. However, neither of them made to the Government"s agenda for approval before 1 October, when the ruling coalition was broken.

Former Minister of Agriculture Ilie Sarbu subsequently submitted the two draft laws to Parliament on 22 October in his capacity as Senator. On the same day, twenty Members of the Lower Chamber submitted two similar draft laws for debate. Thus, ten months through the year, four draft laws on the same subject, two for each Chamber, are a good setup for a complete gridlock in the legislative process.

Senator Ilie Sarbu, formerly the Minister of Agriculture, is accusing the other group of MPs, which includes even members of his Social Democrat Party (PSD), of having plagiarized his work. On the other side, Democrat Liberal (PD-L) Deputy Valeriu Tabara commented that one solution would be for one of the two authors to withdraw two of the drafts. Alternative, the documents could be merged into one.

Both Ilie Sarbu and Valeriu Tabara agree that Romania"s agriculture sector will have to cope with adversities caused by the change of procedure for State intervention.

Tradus de Andrei Năstase