PRIVATE COFINANCING THROUGH BANK LOANS AS A LIMIT OF IMPLEMENTING EUROPEAN PROGRAMMES IN ROMANIA

Abstract

Sustainable agriculture, in a context of continuous population growth and considering limited natural resources, is not only a major concern, but also a challenge for the countries in the European Union and worldwide. Therefore, agriculture has a major role in creating a sustainable future as it has multiple implications over jobs, climate change, water, soil and biodiversity. Agriculture in Romania still needs support for growing, but this has to be made in a sustainable way and the National Programmes for Rural Development have strategic objectives among which there is also the sustainable management of natural resources and combating climate changes. In agriculture, low productivity and poor use of modern technology determine the need for farmers’ access to financial market and bank loans. Facile access to finance through the National Programmes of Rural Development is essential, but farmers need a private contribution for cofinancig approved projects and this contribution has its source in bank loans. Data from reports of the national programmes showed that one of the reasons for poor implementation of agricultural projects, that are responsible for sustainable development, was the difficult access to bank loans. The objective of the research is finding out to which extent is cofinancing a limit of implementing sustainable development projects and what is the solutions for overcoming it.

Keywords

• sustainable development; agriculture; European funding programmes; cofinancing; bank loans.