New bill proposes ARiMR and ARR as EU funding distributors

The cabinet has approved a draft bill regulating the distribution of EU direct subsidies for farmers, the Government Central Information Office (CIR) announced yesterday. Under the draft bill, the subsidies would be distributed by the Agricultural Restructuring and Modernization Agency (ARiMR ) and Agricultural Market Agency (ARR), but the conditions on which the money would go to farmers would be prepared by the Finance Minister, while all the money for farmers would be kept in a special account at the National Bank of Poland (NBP). In order to enable the aforementioned agencies to act as cashiers, legal changes in the statute of the two bodies would be needed and would cost the budget another zł. 400 million. The distribution of the subsidies would depend on the Sejm's approval of the public finance amendment program. At the moment, ARiMR offers 12 credit lines for farmers. (www.onet.pl) J.K.