FEADR – Measure 121
„Modernisation of agricultural holdings”
(version according with the Solicitant Guide March 2011)

1. must be a farmer, respectively a natural person / juridical body with main activity in agriculture:
• is registered with the CAEN code of the activity financed under the project–agricultural main CAEN code (01xx)
• to demonstrate that its main activity is agricultural, the solicitant must make the proof that the agricultural main activities represent at least 50% from total exploatation incomes(for farms in function,it is demonstrated by putting as annex to the financial application form of a document signed by an expert accountantstating that the incomes from agriculturalactivities represent at least 50% from total exploatation incomes, or in case of authorised natural persons, individual enterprisesand family enterprises:Special declarationon estimated income in the year precedent to the one on which the financial application form is submitted – Formular 220,registered to Financial Administration)
• solicitant’s holding is situated in Romania and has a economicsize unit (ESU) equal or larger than 2 ESU (1 ESU = 1,200 euro)
2. can have the following statute: PF - natural persons (natural persons will be accepted as potential beneficiaries only if they commit themselves to get authorised as authorised natural persons within 30 working days from the date of receiving the selection notification for the financing application form), PFA - authorised natural persons (OUG 44/2008); individual enterprises (OUG 44/2008);family enterprises (OUG 44/2008); commercial company (Lawa 31/1990 with modifications); commercial company with 100% private capital (Law 15/1990 with modifications);agricultural society (Law 36/1991); agricultural co-operative society (Law 1/2005);producer groups (Law 338/2005), only if the investmentswill serve to the interests of own members; agricultural co-operatives (Law 566/2004), only if the investments will serve to the interests of own members.
3. must be registerein the Unique Identification Register - RUI (APIA), as well as in Agricultural Register from the Mayor-Houses; for the existing animals, the solicitant must be registered in the Holding Register (ANSVSA/DSVSA)
4. must havepositiv operational result (including 0) at the endof the year precedent to the one on which the financial application form is submitted(excemption for year of establishment, calamitated years or solicitants that have not registered exploitation incomes)
5. must have 100% private social capital, which can beintegral 100% from Romania, mixt or 100% foreign
6. must act in own name, i.e. to administrate the business directly
7. in the case of the farms in function,they must haveall the working authorizations: environment, sanitary, sanitary-veterinary, phytosanitary etc
8. must have a clear fiscal record, clear criminal record and must be at day with the paying of credit rates at the banks, if the case. When signing the financing contract, the solicitant will presenta clear fiscal record.
9. must not be in process of liquidation, merging or division (Law 31/1990, republished), juridical reorganization or bankruptcy (Law 85/2006, republished)
10. to provide,since the financial application form is submited,a co-financing source(an engagement banking confort letter or other banking documents will be put as annex/es).

1. must respect the conformity with the general objective of the measure and at least one of the specific objectives
2. must be in accordance with the agricultural potential of the area, according with the studies from ASAS-ICPA and ICDEA 2004 (minimum 75% of the area or of the animals must be located in areas with medium or high potential; for species cultivated in protected areas as well as for the invesmnets in bee-keeping it is not necessary to have a project in accordance with the agricultural potential of the area)
3. the beneficiary/ legal reprezentative of the project (a person from the company, a shareholder) must prove professional training within the area of the project and to prove his/her job (study diploma, training certificate or a personal statement that will attend and graduate a professional training course in the area of the project, until the last payment request)
4. must be viable from economic and financial viewpoint (theeconomic and financial objective of increasing economic viability, it will be done through checking 2 cumulative conditions:the operational result from the end of the year precedent to the one on which the financial application form is submitted must be positiveand the project must respect the econimic and financial indicatorsfrom the financial application form – economic section)
5. finalisation of theEAFRD project means that the beneficiary have finalised the investments covered by eligible expenditures as well as the investments covered by non-eligible expenditures
6. the beneficiary is not allowed to sell or/and to modify the investment undertake under the projectnfor a period of 5 years from the date of signing the financing contract.

1. in case of intervention over an existing building under the project, there must be an ownership right over these constructions
2. for the land where exists or it will placed a construction as part of the project, in case of definitive constructions, there must exists a main real right(ownership, use, life interest, superficies, servitude, gained through: buying-selling contract, exchange, donation, inheritedcertificate, administrative act of restitution, court decision)or concession
3. in case of agricultural land, it is necessary an ownership right over the land (buying-selling contract) or a use right over the land (leasing contract and/orconcession contract and/or any other document certifying the right to use).

*the score is given proportionaly, as percentage of the value of that type of investment in total eligible value of the project

For thevegetal sector, it is posible for the sessions from 2012, to have a maximum eligible value of a project of 1,000,000 Euro, a non-reimbursable support of maxim 40% and amaximumvalue of the public co-finance of 400,000 Euro.

For animal breeding sector,maximum eligible value of a project is 2,000,000 Euro, the non-reimbursable support is maximum40% and maximumvalue of the public co-finance is 800,000 Euro.

For these sectors, the non-reimbursable support can be increased with:

• 10% for investments done by young farmers, with age under 40 years, at the date of submission the financing application form;
• 10% for investments done by the farmers from areas foreseen at art. 36 letter (a), points (i),(ii), (iii) from the Regulation (CE) no. 1698/2005;
• 10% for investments aiming at the implementationof new chalenges under the following types of operations: „improving the efficiency of the use and storage of the azotate fertilisers”, „instalationsfor the waste water treatment in agricultural holdings and in case of processing and marketing processes”. This increase is applied exclusively to the part of the project including investments in these 2 types of operations;
• 25% only for year 2010, for the investments aiming at implementation ofCouncil Directive 91/676/CEE from 12th of December 1981 on water protection against the pollution with nitrates coming from agricultural sources, based on Corrigenda to the Regulation (CE) no. 1463/2006 whichchanges Regulation (CE) no. 1698/2005 and foreseen such support for a period of 4 years starting with 1st of January 2007.

There can be added investments in renewable energy, as follows:
a) for vegetal sector,maximum eligible value can increase up to 1.5 mil. Euro (proposal)
b) for animal breeding sector,maximum eligible value can increase up to 3 mil. Euro.

Maximum Value of the public co-finance can reach 1,600,000 Euro, with a percentage of non-reimbursable support of maximum40%, for the projects belonging to theassociative formsand which are aiming at serving the majority of its members (half plus one of the members). Maximum eligible value of such a project can be 4,000,000 Euro.

The non-reimbursable funds will be granted to the eligibles beneficiaries forcorporal and non-corporal investments¹ , according with the following indicative list of eligible expenditures:

1. Construction and/or modernisation of buildings for agricultural production² t the farm level, including investments for complying with the communitary standards and those for environmental protection and storage of fertilisers;
2. Construction and/or modernisation of road infrastructure within the farm or acces roads to the farm (on owned land), including utilitiesidentified as necessary through the Feasibility Study/Justifying Memo;
3. Building and/or modernization of milking cows farm such as: equipments for producing forages, milking installations, technological lines for processing and packing of the products, technical endownments in order to provide quality control at farm level etc;
4. Building and/or modernization of the greenhouses, including heating station and irrigation installations, utilities in order to respect the environment conditions;
5. Purchasing or purchasingin leasing³ new tractors, combines, machinery, tools, instalations, equipments and accessories, specialised equipments and software, identified as necessary through the Feasibility Study/Justifying Memo;
6. Purchasing or purchasing in leasing new specialised means of transportation⁴ , for inputs and final product, requested by the agricultural activities, identified as necessary through the Feasibility Study/Justifying Memo;
7. Replacement of noble vineyards at the end of the production bilogical cycle (minimum 40 years) and which are not included in the system of restructuring/ reconversion of the vineyards supported through FEGA in CMO wine and establishing plantations for table grapes;
8. Establishing orchards andplantations of fruit-bushes andstrawberries;
9. Establishingnurseries for vineyards, fruit-trees and fruit-bushes, other trees;
10. Investments for producing and sustainable use of the energy from renewable sources within the farm;
11. Investments for creating forestry species with short production cycle and vegetative regeneration, in order to produce renewable energy;
12. Investments in bee-keeping, except of those undertaken on Bee-keepingNational Programme;
13. Investments for processing agricultural products at the farm level⁵ , including equipments for selling, including storage and cooling etc.;
14. General costs of the project, according the article no. 55 from the Regulation (CE) no. 1974/ 2006, such as: taxes for architects, engineers and consultants, feasibility studies, taxes for issuing certificates, approvements and authorizations requested by the project, as are mentioned in the national legislation, purchasing patents and licences (maximum 8% from total eligible value of the project, if the projects includes construction works and maximum 3% in case there are no constructions foreseen);
15. Investments requested by the adaptation of the farms to the ecological agriculture;
16. Investments requested by introducing the conformity with the communitary standards.
ATTENTION! Storage facilities are eligible expenditures on Measure 121, but only if it is stored the production of the respective farm and the capacity of the storage is correlated with the production obtained at the farm level. Eligibile are only the expenditures undertake after the date of signing the financing contract with APDRP and approval by the Agency of the procurement files; there is only one exemption - General costs of the project (point 14), which can be undertake before signing the financing contract with APDRP.

¹Physical Investments – physical and current assets (buildings, means of transportation, machinery etc.) Non-PhysicalInvestments– non-psysical assets such as trade fund, patents etc., expenditures (in the accountance sence of the word) with publicity, with studies etc.
²Areas for general activity of the farm are not eligible: offices for the administrative personnel, meeting rooms, protocol rooms, kitchen and dinning room, accomodation rooms, etc. In order to respect the conditions for hygiene/sanitary-veterinary and technological flow, the areas for the production personnel areeligibile: labs, filter locker room for workers, office for the vet, office for theforeman, office of the farm chief, area for serving the meal etc
³Leasing is eligibleonly if the ownership of the goods is transfered to the beneficiary in theimplementation period of the project, untill the last request for payment.
⁴Specialised means of transportation represents the autovehicles adapted to the own transportation requirements for raw materials and/or production obtained and which are mentioned in the Feasibility Study/Justifying Memo anexxed to the financial application form, vehicles which are fullfilling the same requirements and have a specific functionwhich suppose adaptations of the vehicle’s body and/or special equipments, as well as the ones specially mentioned in the fiches of the NPRD measures.
⁵Only if 50% of the raw material is produced in the own farm, the processing result is also a product from Annex I to the Treaty, and agriculture represent and remain the basic activity.

1. Purchase of second-hand goods;
2. Purchase of land;
3. VAT, except the VAT which is not recovered, in case it is paid by the beneficiaries in real and definite terms, other than the non-taxed persons, according to art.71 (3), letter a from the Regulation (CE) no. 1698/2005;
4. Operational costs, including costs for maintenance and lease;
5. Costs with the bank, guarantees and similar expences;
6. In-kind contribution;
7. Costs with the exchange rate, taxes and losses due to the exchange rate associated to the euro APDRP accont;
8. Costs generated by a leasing contract: management tax, fees, insurance costs etc.;
9. Costs with the leasing of machines, tools, instalations and equipments;
10. Purchase of means of transportation for personal use and person transportation;
11. Investments in a simply replacement operation in accordance with art. 55 from the Regulation (CE) no. 1974/2006;
12. Investments in fishery / aquaculture and animals for fur;
13. Investments in production of Christmas trees.

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⁶ „simply replacement operation” means an investment which replace an existing building or a machinery or parts of it, with new modern ones, without increasing the production capacity with more than 25% or without changes in the production nature or of the technology involved.Are not considered simply replacement operations the following: complete demolition of a building older than 30 years from the farm and its replacement with a modern building, and full renovation of a building from the farm. Renovation is considered full when the total cost is at least 50% from the value of the new building, according with the stipulations of art. 2, point 17 ofCommission Regulation (CE) no. 1857/2006 regarding the application of the articles 87 and 88 from the Treaty of state aids for the SMEs which are having the activity in the area of producing agricultural products and of modification the Commission Regulation (CE) no. 70/2001 regarding the application of articles 87 and 88 from the Treaty of state aids for the SMEs.

1. Basic principle of non-reimbursable funds is to reimburse the expenditures already done by the beneficiary.
2. A solicitant may submitt in the same time several projects for finance under EAFRD, but on different measures of National Plan for Rural Development.
3. A solicitant may submitt projects for finance under EAFRD, even it has investment projects under SAPARD Programme.
4. A beneficiary may submitt a second project under measure 121 under EAFRD, only after the first project is finalised.
5. The projects of the solicitants that have major shareholders in other current projects on EAFRD on same measure, are non-eligible.