The working group for drafting the regulations concerning the distribution of the agriculture subsidization fund for 2016 had its first meeting that was chaired by Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Ion Sula. The farmers have so far submitted more than 4,000 applications for subsidies of about 551 million lei, IPN reports.

Of these, subsidies to the value of over 6.6 million lei asked by 46 applications have been fully paid. Of the total number of 4,074 applications submitted, 1,350 were filed during several days before the deadline, which is a novelty. By these applications, the farmers asked for subsidies of 135 million lei.

The 610 million lei allocated from the 2015 state budget was used to pay subsidies of about 209 million lei for 2014, based on 2,330 applications. A number of 1,671 applications for subsidies of 145 million lei were accepted for payment in 2015.

In the meeting, the members of the working group agreed the priorities of the subsidization process in 2016. It was agreed that the regulations concerning the distribution of the agriculture subsidization fund for 2016 will be based on the regulations for 2015, with the necessary updating, and will include particular coefficients depending on the value of the agriculture subsidization fund approved by the 2016 state budget law.

The representatives of the farmers associations attending the meeting demanded that a direct subsidization scheme and direct complementary payments of 50% of the fund should be instituted for 2016. The sides agreed that a decision will be taken in the next meeting, after examining all the provided arguments and the relevant studies.