As impossible as it seemed one year ago, more than half of the Romanian farmers opened a bank account and registered at the Agriculture Payments and Interventions Agency, so that they may benefit from the European Union's funds for farming.

A recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers report reinforces some official statements on the system's flaws.

In order to "enjoy" at least 50 euros per hectare, paid by the European Union, Romanian farmers with at least on hectare under management had to go through some bureaucratic trials, the opening of a bank account being the most difficult.

Still, more than half of the Romanian farmers managed to open a bank account.

"We receive some 20,000 financing demands every day, at a national level. At this pace, all 1.2 million farmers will be registered before May 15", says Nicolae Sterghiu, Agriculture Payments and Interventions Agency manager.