Comparative analysis of the National Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 between Romania and Poland

The National Rural Development Programme (NRDP) is a programme of the European Union and the Romanian Government to provide free funds for the economic and social development of rural Romania. The purpose of this study is to highlight the situation of Romania compared to Poland, both Member States of the European Union, in terms of financial allocation of the national rural development program in the period 2014-2020. To achieve this goal, the financial statements on the allocation of NRDP for both states were analyzed, including the number of applications submitted and payments completed for the main sub-measures financed by NRDP. The NRDP has a strong impact on agricultural production in rural areas and, therefore, in addition to financing the development and modernisation of agricultural production and rural infrastructure, the European Fund has contributed to improving the quality of life of rural populations by creating new jobs. For measure 4.1, Poland implemented projects worth €2.23 billion, or 52.6% of the total allocation for the measure, and Romania implemented projects worth €0.677 billion, or 42.3% of the total allocation. In terms of the number of farms in 2016, Romania registered 3.4 million farms and a workforce of 6 million employees on farms, double the number of Poland (1.4 million farms and 3 million employees on farms).