Brussels, 22/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission and Romanian Government have reached an agreement on the modalities and functioning of EU aid to Romanian agriculture under the Sapard Programme (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development). Thus, a total of 150 million euro is available for rural development in Romania, for the period stretching from now to 2006 included. The amount had already been established; what remained was for several aspects to be spelt out, and notably the question of the Romanian body responsible for payments to farmers and guaranteeing the correct use of the funds the EU will place at its disposal. All these problems have been settled. The modernisation and development of agriculture is crucial for Romania, where 10 million inhabitants (out of a population of 22.5 million) live in rural areas. Agriculture accounts for 41.7% of all employment. The programme, approved by the Star Committee, pursues economic, social and economic objectives. Community aid covers 75% of public spending for the projects selected.
At present, the Sapar programmes to all ten countries of Central and Eastern Europe candidates for accession have been approved. Sapard's total budget is 520 million euro.