Agriculture could be main beneficiary of Romania's EU accession

Romania has a gross domestic product per capita a little over 40 percent of the average of the 27 European Union member states, says the Partnership Strategy with Romania released by the World Bank.

There are, however, delays both in the development strategy and in the national reform programme, with the latter being revised by the European Commission on an annual basis with a view to attaining the EU convergence goals, the World Bank added.

For the development of agriculture and of the rural areas, Romania meets the EU Agriculture Policy and it can have access to 14.5 billion euros over 2007-2013, the World Bank Strategy says. The institution stresses the Romanian farmers can benefit from the opportunities offered by the market integration and from the stability and predictability of the EU policies, but the absorption of the funds by the farmers (though improved) and the impact of the funds on the effective restructuring of the agricultural sector and rural development still remain to be evaluated.

According to the World Bank, the Romanian agriculture suffers from fragmented properties, the use of archaic methods of land toiling and the lack of sales markets. Therefore, the World Bank's major goal on the Romanian agriculture consists in supporting the restructuring of the agriculture on market criteria and in boosting its competitiveness. The World Bank's projects are focused on three directions: supporting the farmland ownership and the absorption of the European funds, raising the competitiveness of the farmers and of the agri-foodstuffs producers, including by upgrading the system of food research and safety. The third direction refers the land reclamation and the reform of the irrigation system.

The World Bank believes that the most efficient mix would be the one between the national policies and the EU agricultural policy. The agricultural sector, by its reform, could become the main beneficiary of Romania's EU accession, given that the Romanian farmers would thus have access to a market of more than 500 million consumers, the World Bank points out.

Agerpres