Farmers have until May 15 to submit per-hectare payment requests. APIA will apply penalties for requests filed after this date, the agency said in a press release Wednesday.
Requests submitted after June 11 will not be taken into account, said APIA.
Payment per area schemes are financed through the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and with funds from the state budget, allotted though the Agriculture Ministry.
For the 2012 campaign, Romania has been allotted EUR1.087 billion from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund for the single payment scheme.
According to data presented by APIA Wednesday, EU-subsidy payments made by the agency between 2007 and February 2012 amount to about EUR5 billion, of which EUR4.6 billion have already been reimbursed by the European Commission.
The agency expects the remaining sum will be refunded in March, APIA general manager Florin Marius Faur told a news conference.
So far, the country’s agriculture fund absorption rate is 61%, said Faur.
Romania was allotted about EUR8.2 billion for payments to farmers for the 2007-2013 interval.
Between January 2011- and February 2012, APIA made payments of about EUR2.9 billion, of which EUR1.93 billion were EU funds.