Abstract. For the programming period 2014-2020, the European Commission established a specific voluntary Organic farming measure, recognizing the importance of organic farming in contributing to various rural development objectives and priorities. As a result, high expectations have been raised among Romanian organic farmers for the provisions of the new National Rural Development Program, with regard to an even more consistent support of the organic sector. The final version of the new program (including the Measure 11 “Organic Farming”), was submitted to the Commission in April 2015 and received the Conformity Letter in May 2015. The paper outlines the major results of the stakeholders’ ongoing evaluation and recommendation for improvement of the measure fiche and the calculation of the compensatory payments, partially undertaken based on the inputs provided by the stakeholders within the frame of National Rural Development Network organized events, before the official published announcement of the Program approval. During the evaluation, certain suggestions for improvements of the initial version came out regarding the application of degressivity, the avoidance of double funding of practices corresponding to the application of “greening” standards and the inclusion of support for organic farmed grasslands. Given that rural development support for organic farming has increased in the present period, the Commission recommended that Romania should set in place the necessary systems to collect and reinforce data on the Romanian situation for any future revision of the aid calculations under the Organic farming measure.

Key words: organic farming, rural development, compensatory payments, greening standards

Presentation: oral