Romanian economists ask for better distribution of EU funds for agriculture owing to disproportions

The European Union should focus more on redistributing spendings in the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) rather then reducing them, considering the significant disproportions between the money alloted to big farms and to the small ones, economic analyst Liviu Voinea said.

Half of the farmers in the EU receive 3 percent of the subventions alloted within CAP while 2 percent of farmers get 30 percent of funds, according to Voinea who presented a study coordinated by MEP Daniel Daianu, called "How to manage diversity in a growing Union. A Romanian stand point regarding the EU budget reformation." The study will be laid out to the European Commission tomorrow in Brussels.

"This problem exists in Romania too where 93 percent of farmers receive 39 percent of funds and 1 percent of farmers receive 45 percent of money," Voinea said.

The economist deems the differences can be reduced by using a different subsidy mechanism according to how large the area of farming land is for each farm. The amount of money alloted to farms with less than 5 hectares of land should increase while that for bigger farms should be gradually reduced, Voinea deems.

Other economists who contributed to the mentioned study deem the fund allotments should focus more on rural development.

The CAP reformation was the subject of a harsh dispute between France and the UK in 2005. It split EU into the countries with powerful agriculture segments and those whose agriculture was less important for the economy.

The CAP entered into force in 1962 when the founding members of the EC had just emerged from over a decade of severe food shortages during and after the Second World War.

The CAP reformation in 2003 changed the fund allotment system by perking up rural development. This is a good opportunity for the Romanian rural areas considering that most of them lack minimum infrastructure.

The mentioned study addresses mostly to a Romanian agriculture issue: the fragmenting of lands. It means that small farms, which are very numerous, have difficult access to European funds. Romania's agriculture was hit by serious drought last summer, provoking significant damages to crops.

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