Skopje, 3 August 2023 (MIA) – Financial support of the last Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance for Rural Development - IPARD II public call that will be released on Friday (August 4) amounts to €8.8 million. The deadline for submitting applications is September 18, and the investments that will be approved must be implemented by May 31. The requests for payment of funds should be submitted by June 30, and afterwards the Agency for Financial Support of Agriculture and Rural Development is obliged to pay the funds within six months (until the end of the year).

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy Ljupcho Nikolovski said at Thursday’s press briefing that the goal is maximum utilization of IPARD II programming funds. So far, 2,369 contracts have been concluded, which is more than the total number of contracts in Serbia, Albania and Montenegro combined.

“We are announcing this last call in order that €8.8 million, as the last money from IPARD 2, will be invested at home, so that we will not return any money, unlike IPARD I when €60 million were returned to the EU. In this way, the total implementation of the IPARD programme would reach 100 percent, which would be another success for the country. This is admirable success, because not only we use all the money, channelling it into investments of domestic companies, but we also made a record in the region. With the last public call, the number of contracts would increase, and the record would be confirmed,” Nikolovski said.

The IPARD II call will refer to measure 3 - Investments in physical assets concerning processing and marketing of agricultural and fishery products. The new investments would relate to milk and dairy products, meat and meat processing, including eggs and poultry, fruits and vegetables, cereals, milled and vegetable products, oils and animal fats, ..., and the financial support for this call consists of 75% funds under IPARD and 25% of the funds are provided from the state budget. Financial assistance per individual application will be allocated as nonrefundable financial assistance (grant) in the amount of 50% of the value of the total eligible expenditures for the investments.

Under this public call investments in construction works, i.e. construction, extension, upgrading or adaptation of buildings are not eligible. The public call is exclusively intended for the purchase of equipment for processing. With regard to investments related to production of energy from renewable sources, the only acceptable investments are the purchase, installation/installation of photovoltaic panels for the production of energy for its own needs.

“All Macedonian companies in agricultural sector should make an effort to prepare good, sustained applications. In this direction, the ministry will organize several meetings this month with all potential applicants,” Nikolovski noted.

Photo: MIA