Even a farmer's project that is 99% complete may not receive support
On 30 October 2025, 14 farmers addressed the Minister of Agriculture, Andrius Palionis. In their letter, they asked for more flexibility in the implementation of projects under the measure "Investments in tangible assets" of the Lithuanian Rural Development Programme 2014/2020, operational area "Support for investments in agricultural holdings". Farmers expressed their wish that sanctions should not be applied for late submission of payment claims and that they should be assessed at the same time instead of one by one. Time is pressing – the deadline is 14 November. Farmers are therefore hoping for quick and favourable decisions from the Ministry of Agriculture (MAF). But will they get them?
NMA assesses the situation
In response to an enquiry sent by „Agrobite“ regarding the situation, the Ministry's Public Relations and Cooperation Department responded with a formal reply – the projects are administered by the National Paying Agency (NPA), so the Ministry only „instructed to urgently investigate“ the situation. In other words, the matter has been passed on.
„Most of them (i.e. the requests – aut. note) relate specifically to procedural issues concerning the assessment of the NMA's payment claims and the deadlines set for the beneficiaries to submit their payment claims“,– pointed out the MoA, clarifying that the NMA is obliged to assess each case on an individual basis and to inform the Ministry as well as beneficiaries of the decisions.
For the farmers who have sent a letter to the Ministry, this probably means that decisions will have to wait, although unfortunately there is no time.
The threat of sanctions
Farmers are hitting another wall in the bureaucratic machinery as they plead for sanctions to be waived for late payment claims.
„Sanctions cannot be exempted exclusively for certain farmers/groups of farmers, which would be detrimental to the interests of other beneficiaries“, the ministry argued coldly. The MAFF also recalled that it had already allowed several postponements of deadlines and that „the beneficiaries themselves must make every effort to implement the projects as quickly as possible (it is stated that the completion rate of most projects is 90% or more)“.
The MA seems to take the view that the conditions of support apply to all and that the possibilities of flexibility have already been exhausted, and passes on further decisions to the NMA: „It will be up to the NMA to take a decision on each project individually.“ What happens if the farmers still do not make it?
„Failure to submit the payment application itself by the payment application deadline, or failure to request a postponement of the payment application deadline, will result in the non-acceptance of subsequent payment applications,“ the MAFF has stated. What does this mean? Even a 99% completed project can result in zero payments...
Funding trap
The Ministry was also asked whether these farmers are affected by the issue of the €27 million in the RDP programme, which has been raised before.
„Most of the projects of the farmers who made the appeal are not funded by the RDP but by the European Union's Economic Recovery Fund (ERF). The problem of lack of funds raised earlier concerns only those projects financed by the RDP. EURI projects are fully funded and only have the problem of timely implementation," the MAFF clarified.
Farmers implementing projects funded by the RDP are facing a lack of funds and the threat of settlements and debts, while those funded by EURI have sufficient funds, but lack the time and capacity to postpone deadlines.
The (non-)strict adherence to procedures by the MAFF does not promise a face-to-face meeting with farmers to explain the situation.
„A meeting could be planned if the need arises, at the moment, everyone is concentrating on the work to ensure that as many projects as possible are implemented on time and successfully,– the ministry concluded laconically.
