Study on accessing European funds for adding value to agricultural and forestry products

The study aims to analyze the state of the accessing of European funds for rural development within the Measure 123 (adding value to agricultural and forestry products). The paper develops quantitative and qualitative analysis of specific projects that have been approved under measure 123 of rural development policy in Romania. The analysis follows the evolution in time during four years (2008-2011) of the number of projects submitted for this measure, and especially the number of projects selected and the number of projects that have received the final funding decision. We noticed that, over time, the Measure 123 became a successful solution of investments for Romanian farmers (the last session for receiving projects in 2011 had a real success with a public value of submitted projects four time greater than the approved budget for that session). The measure also met its objectives regarding the type of companies that applied for the European funds: the vast majority is represented by small and medium enterprises. Although the average numbers for accessing this measure improved in 2010 and 2011, disparities between development regions are evident.