AFIR has submitted to the European Commission the expenditure statement for the reimbursement of European funds amounting to 202.8 million euros (202,820,673.66 €).

This amount represents the equivalent of payments made from the national budget in the first quarter of 2023 to farmers, processors, entrepreneurs, and public authorities who have made investments in agriculture and rural development, as well as for environmental and climate measures.

The document submitted to the European Commission includes the total payments made by AFIR to project beneficiaries and direct and compensatory payments during the period of January 1st to March 31st, 2023. The payments were sourced from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (FEADR), amounting to 192.6 million euros (192,643,697.57 €), as well as from the European Union's Recovery Instrument (EURI) with a value of 10.2 million euros (10,176,976.09 €).

"All these amounts that we have requested from the European Commission are the result of payments made by AFIR to beneficiaries and serve to replenish the state budget. The agency is working diligently to reimburse the necessary amounts to applicants following the implementation of projects and thus accelerate the absorption rate of the European funds we manage," stated George CHIRIȚĂ, General Director of AFIR.

According to the procedural flow established at the level of the European Commission, the expenditure statement for the period of January 1st to March 31st, 2023 has been uploaded into the computer system used for data exchange between member states and the EC. After verifying the amounts in the expenditure statement, the Commission will reimburse the requested European funds to Romania within a maximum of 45 days.