Rural Development

​RURAL DEVELOPMENT

PROJECT MEASURES OF 2014 – 2020 RDP

In 2020, the APA announced 5 calls for applications for a non-repayable grant. One of the new calls was an exceptional temporary subsidy for agricultural and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)particularly affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

From the beginning of the 2014 - 2020 programming period until the end of 2020, 48 calls for individual measures and sub-measures of the 2014 - 2020 RDP SR were announced and 4 calls were cancelled. After a review or a significant change in the projects by publishing an addendum (242 in total), by sending a notice or through a proposal for withdrawal from the contract, evaluation was completed for 54 projects.

In the lien agenda, 320 Contracts on the Establishment of a Lien were processed in 2020 and 682 consents for the cancellation of liena were granted. The APA granted 5 consents: 1 to consent to an encumbrance, 3 to consent to the establishment of a lien in favour of another creditor, 1 to consent to the transfer of a property to a third party, 1 to consent to change the characteristics of a building and reduce acreage, and 1 to consent to the registration of a survey plan.

The implementation of community-led local development (CLLD/LEADER) is administratively supported by 2 APA regional branch departments in Nitra (for project evaluation and for addendums and payment requests).

Calls announced:

  • Total announced calls as of 31. 12. 2020: 693
  • Total allocation (EU+SR) by MAS as of 31. 12. 2020: €93,038,979.35
  • Announced calls as of 1. 1. 2020 to 31. 12. 2020: 331
  • Total allocation (EU+SR) as of 1. 1. 2020 to 31. 12. 2020: €37,784,561.45

Closed calls:

  • Closed calls as of 1. 1. 2020 to 31. 12. 2020: 426.
  • Approved contribution of the closed calls: €0.00
  • Total closed calls as of 31. 12 2020: 626.
  • Approved contribution of the closed calls: €1,204,194.83

There were 23 cases of extraordinarily terminated contracts on a non-repayable grant in 2020 by Agreement on Termination of the Contract on a Non-repayable Grant, and 3 cases of withdrawal from the Contract on a Non-repayable Grant due to a material breach of the contract.

NON-PROJECT MEASURES OF 2014-2020 RDP SR

Non-project measures were supported in 2020 in the ratio of 53% from EARDF to 47% from the state budget for other regions (Bratislava Region) and 75% from EARDF to 25% from the state budget for less developed regions (SR excluding the Bratislava Region). They were the following measures: payment for areas with natural restrictions or other special restrictions (ANC), a payment within the Natura 2000 system for agricultural land (UEV), payment within the Natura 2000 system for forest land, payment for inclusion in the agri-environmental-climate measure, payment for the breeding and maintenance of endangered species, payment for organic agriculture, payment for forestry-environmental and climatic services and forest protection, first afforestation of agricultural land, animal welfare payment. After the completion of administrative inspections, fulfilment of the eligibility criteria and the conditions for cross-compliance on a single application for 2020, at the beginning of December 2020, the APA approved and disbursed subsidies for the ANC and UEV non-project measures. 7,864 applications for the 2014-2020 RDP SR were submitted in 2020. By the end of December 2020, 4,159 application were approved, for a totalamount of €47,886,038.73 for the ANC and UEV measures. As of January 2021, the APA has also approves other payments for the 2014-2020 RDP SR non-project measures within a single application. From the beginning of the programming period in 2014 to 31. 12. 2020, the APA approved funds for the 2014-2020 RDP SR non-project measures to applicants worth €758,393,795. The largest amount of the funds provided is the amount for the ANC measure, i.e. €447,526,269.48.

2014‑2020 OPF

In 2020, the APA continued to administer applications submitted within the calls announced on 31. 08. 2018. In 2020, the payment application administration was affected by many audit findings by the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic and the Government Audit Office, which resulted in the discontinuation of the submission of the aggregate payment applications for demand-oriented projects. Incomplete payment applications, incomplete processes and re-verification of processes by the MARD SR, as well as incomplete inspections of public procurement, continued to be a negative factor affecting the length of time it took to disburse payments for submitted applications. These situations required the discontinuation of the application approval processes, resulting in the failure to complete the administrative financial inspections of applications within the period set by the ESIF financial management system.

In 2020, 12 applications were submitted and 5 were authorized (disbursed) for a total amount of €111,410.73, of which €28,345.23 were technical assistance payments within the budget adjustment record sheet. The greatest share of the 2014‑2020 OPF total disbursed amount included applications of demand-oriented projects and aquaculture projects.

Source: Report on Agriculture and Food Sector in the Slovak Republic for 2020 - Green Report.