EU makes first SAPARD payment

2001-09-13
Aleksei Gunter

TALLINN - Erki Oidermaa, a farmer from Polva county in southeastern Estonia on Sept. 7 became the first person in Estonia and indeed Eastern Europe to receive financial support under the European Union's SAPARD program - intended, in the runup to EU accession, to tackle problems resulting from the liberalization of rural economies and to pay for implementation of the common agricultural policy.

The program has a total annual budget of 520 million euros ($465.11 million) and came into effect on January 1, 2000. It is planned to last until the end of 2006, but once candidate countries have joined they will cease to be eligible.

Together, John Kjaer, head of the European Commission's delegation to Estonia and Estonian Agriculture Minister Ivari Padar visited Oidermaa to hand over his grant of 450,000 kroons ($25,728).

Although SAPARD was launched a month ago in Bulgaria, this was the first actual payment, said Katrin Noorkoiv, head of the SAPARD program's Estonia agency.Padar said he hoped others would see that obtaining money under the scheme was a realistic possibility.

In his speech Kjaer said the point of the program was not to please bureaucrats in Brussels, but to help agriculture and rural life.

Oidermaa, 28, whose grant has helped pay for a 1.5 million kroon New Holland grain harvester, mostly grows beer barley and seed grain in Polva. He has seven years' farming experience and graduated from the Higher School of Gardening in Rapina.

This year's deadline for applications for SAPARD money is September 14.

Those who do not make this date can apply next February.

Should anyone have problems filling in the 27-page form, he can consult one of about 80 advisers trained by the Estonian Agricultural Registry and Information Board.

The board must consider applications within 50 days, but processing times are currently faster than this. Rather than being given a straight-forward handout, applicants must have the total sum they are applying for in advance, which can be arranged by reaching agreements with the Estonian Agricultural Registry and Information Board. Additionally, a farmer or company must have no unpaid debts one month before making an application.