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The Agency for Rural Investment Financing (AFIR) manages 38 interventions under the Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy 2023 - 2027 (SP CAP 2027), with a financial allocation of 5.87 billion euros, of which the European Union funding exceeds 5 billion euros.
According to an AFIR press release sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday, out of the 38 interventions, financed from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the state budget, 11 interventions are for environmental and climate measures that are delegated to colleagues at APIA and for which AFIR will make payments, as in the 2014-2020 programming period, agerpres reports.
The funds for young farmers in mountain areas were the first to run out, on 6 December 2023, before the closing date of the session, namely 31 January 2024. A total of 1,879 applications for funding were submitted, with a cumulative value of 131.5 million euros, exceeding the ceiling set for this session of 112.8 million euros.
Also this year, AFIR becomes a multi-fund agency, the institution managing to optimise its activity and, through considerable efforts of all staff, to manage in this financial programming period three European funds for financing agriculture and rural environment, namely EAFRD, supported by funds from the European Union Recovery Instrument (EURI), managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR); European Union Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (ERRM) through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), managed by the Ministry of European Investment and Projects (MIPE), and for the financing of Investment 7 by the Ministry of Education (MEd); Modernisation Fund through the European Investment Bank (EIB), managed by the Ministry of Energy (MEn).
In addition, AFIR is also in charge of the implementation of the national programme for the development and support of the food industry in the period 2023 - 2026, through the Investalim state aid scheme, which has a total budget of 590 million euros.
According to the source, the annual allocation for financing projects is about 147.5 million euros. The 2023 session closed on 27 December 2023, reaching a percentage of applications of more than 400% of the total allocation of the session. Thus, since the opening of the session on 27 October 2023, 49 applications have been submitted requesting more than 613 million euros out of a total allocation of 147.5 million euros.
