Agriculture Ministry calls on farmers to apply for money from EU funds

The Agriculture Ministry along with the Agriculture Payment Agency (PPA) and farmers' associations have called on farmers to apply for their projects to be financed from EU funds.

Some €267 million from EU-fund calls still needs to be drawn this year and some €300 million next year. If the money fails to be drawn, Slovakia will lose it, Agriculture Minister Richard Takac told a news conference on Tuesday.

"We've agreed that we'll make a joint call to urge the whole sector, starting from food producers, farmers, foresters and municipalities up to all those concerned, who are eligible to draw the money from this €600-million-plus package, to put their hands to the plough, to be effective and to apply for payments, not leaving it to the last minute," said Takac.

The ministry has prepared several measures to speed up the rate of drawing, from increasing the number of employees, streamlining the processes of assessing applications for subsidies up to reducing red tape. Takac noted that the ministry introduced small investments up to €100,000, reduced the number of inspections from 100 percent to 5 percent, provided additional money to individual calls and introduced advanced payments.

PPA head Marek Cepko said that all possible systemic measures have been taken to speed up the rate at which funds are drawn from the Rural Development Programme. However, cooperation on the part of the recipients of these subsidies is also needed.

Takac in August pointed to the alarming situation regarding the drawing of EU funds from previous calls. Only some €45 million was drawn from EU funds in 2021, while the figure was around €39 million in 2022. Last year the amount stood at €64 million, while by the end of August the figure for this year had reached €69.5 million.

Source: TASR