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ABSTRACT
The purpose of the following article is to present how Romania has managed to absorb EU funds in order to improve the rural development, through the National Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 (NRDP 2007-2013), Axis 2, Measure 214, Agrienvironment payments.
Measure 214, Agri-environment payments was created in order to contribute to the sustainable development of rural areas by encouraging land users to introduce or continue agricultural production methods that are environmentaly friendly, in order to protect, conserve and improve quality of the environment including biodiversity, water, soil and rural landscape. The study highlights the results of the NRDP 2007-2013 Axis 2, Measure 214, Agri-environment payments.
KEYWORDS
Agri-environment; European funds; NRDP; rural development; rural land;
Master's student, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania, [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
It is certain that in the European Union (EU), the rural development has become one of the main targets of the Common Agricultural Policy, considering that around 80% of the EU territory is represented by the rural area.
Romania is characterized by 87.1% rural space and 12.9% urban . The rural space is occupied by 45.1% of the total population of the country. Taking into account that Romania represents 6% of the EU's surface, and 4% of the total EU's population, we can asses the development potential of the Romanian rural space in the national context and not only.
In the rural area, 64.2% of the active population works in agriculture although the productivity is low and the incomes are lower than in the urban, the agriculture sector is representing the main income source in the rural areas.1
For the EU member states, the 2007-2013 period represented a great opportunity to develop the rural areas not only economically but also on social levels. Taking into account that the main objective of the EU is to assure social and economical cohesion, and to eliminate the territorial disparities between rural and urban regions, there was established a national rural development program for each member state of the EU.
All the programs had aimed to improve the economic and social activities and life status.
In Romania, the National rural development programme 2007-2013 was structurated into axis and aimed to improve the following sectors:
1. Agricultural and forestry sector
2. Environment and natural areas