TIRANA, ALBANIA    To help Albania meet EU conditions to manage its rural development funds, the USAID Regional Economic Growth (REG) activity deployed regional consultants to train and prepare staff at Albania’s Agriculture and Rural Development Agency to meet the European Commission’s (EC’s) Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) expectations.

On September 27, based on satisfactory findings by a DG AGRI audit mission to Albania, the EC plans to make € 71 million ($82 million) available for agriculture and rural development in Albania by the way of grants to interested farmers and businesses. The EC funds are part of its Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance in Rural Development (IPARD) program, designed to assist candidate countries in the implementation of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy and to contribute to the economic sustainability of a country’s agricultural sector and rural areas.

The official approval of the funding, expected at the end of October, will enable a call for grant applications. In addition to the € 71 million from the EC’s budget, the Government of Albania will contribute € 23 million, with the total € 94 million to be disbursed over a five year period. It is expected that this program will support approximately 750 investment projects which is could yield the creation of as many as 800 new jobs.