The payment of a total of 170 billion forints in area-based funding to some 180 thousand farmers began on Wednesday; farmers are receiving 50 percent of their total funding now, Sándor Fazekas announced at a press conference on Wednesday in Budapest.

The Minister for Rural Development added that the sum of uniform area-based funding was some 69 thousand forints per hectare, in comparison to last year's 61 thousand forints per hectare. He also reminded the press that in addition, 6.7 billion forints in special milk funding was being paid out to 2700 farmers and 2 billion forints in sugar beet supplementary funding would also be distributed to hundreds of farmers.

Sándor Fazekas launched the transfer of funds at the Ministry of Rural Development during the press conference. It is a great achievement that the European Commission has authorised the payment of the 50 percent advance, he noted, adding that farmers would receive the second instalment in January 2014.



Sándor Fazekas pointed out that supplementary sugar beet funding would be available for the last time next year, as this form of funding is only provided for a five-year period.

In reply to a question from the press, Minister Fazekas said that continuous monitoring had been built into the system to weed out unentitled refunds. This is applied in the case of all claims that contain abnormalities.

The current payment of funding is not affected by the fact that "there was a bust, since we have known since February that criminals have been attempting to request undue agricultural funding. We have succeeded in protecting farmers' money and have caught the thieves, who are now behind bars; we have done everything in our power to ensure that payments occur securely. The system is operative and is continuously monitored and audited by the European Union, and we are also vigilant at all times", the Minister said with reference to the arrest of a high-ranking official from the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (ARDA) and his three accomplices on Sunday. The attempted fraud was discovered well before the payment of any funding was authorised.

No reorganisation of the ARDA is planned, because there is nothing to justify it. The Minister added. However, Mr. Fazekas also pointed out that the system is continuously changing because the EU Common Agricultural Policy requires changes to the information technology system and to various spheres of responsibility.

(MTI)