Rural areas to receive euro 300 million

According to data released by the Agriculture Restructuring and Modernization Agency (ARiMR), the total amount of EU funding the country's rural areas are to receive from applications to date should amount to around euro 300 million. The number of applications by farmers interested in the SAPARD program numbers 2,456, which guarantees that Poland will use at least 85% of the funds granted by the EU for the years 2000 and 2001, i.e. euro 171.5 million and euro 175 million respectively. For 2002, the European Commission declared a further euro 180 million. The majority of applications (1,907) concern development of rural infrastructure, 353 farmers have applied for finance to be spent on investments on their private farms and 196 companies wish to invest in the processing of farm produce and seafoods. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B2) K.Z.