After almost six months of political uncertainty, Romania has now a new government. Its government programme is constrained by the challenging macroeconomic situation of the country, in the current difiicult geopolitical and climate context. For the agricultural sector, support will continue along the previously set lines, with a few new measures aimed at increasing local production, mitigating risks, and eventually reducing the ever-growing agri trade deficit.
Beeld: © Credit: Photo: Government of Romania (gov.ro).
Official group photograph of the members of the Luca Niculescu Government
Main agri priorities of the new government
As of the end of October 2026, Romania has a new Government, after almost 6 months of political disagreements and an ad-interim government. It is a rather special minority government formed by 1 political party (PSD - Social Democrats) and a few technocrats, led by a technocrat Prime Minister Luca Niculescu (former State Secretary within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Coordinator of Romania’s accession to OECD).
Social-democrat Florin BARBU has been appointed again Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. He held the same position between June 2023 and May 2026 - when the multi-party coalition government fell as a result of a non-confidence motion filed in parliament by PSD itself.
The government has tabled a governing programme for 2 years - until the Parliament elections of 2028. The main priority lines included in the agricultural chapter of the programme are:
- Fair and timely support for farmers
- Irrigation, processing and domestic production
- Market Access
- Young farmers, land and the countryside
Difficult starting point
According to the new government programme, Romania is entering the period 2027–2028 after a period of necessary but harsh budgetary adjustment, triggered by the excess budget deficit procedure Romania entered in 2025. This adjustment has produced results, however its costs to the economy have also become visible: after the first seven months of 2026, industrial output fell by 3.7 per cent; between May 2025 and June 2026, approximately 70,000 jobs were lost, 76 per cent of them in industry, while the International Monetary Fund forecasts an economic contraction of 0.5 per cent for 2026.
Actually, the country’s economy has been slowing down for several years, Romania facing competitiveness issues since at least 2020, unnoticed due to substantial funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and rising public debt. The new government must address this situation by reducing the state budget deficit and, in parallel, it must undertake reform, restructuring or revitalisation measures.
Regarding the population, hardships and discontent are growing. In 2025, 69 per cent of people aged 20–64 were working, compared with 76 per cent in the European Union, and nearly one in five young people were neither in education, employment nor training. The risk of poverty or social exclusion still affects 5.2 million people. Romanians live, on average, five years less than other Europeans, and Romania has the highest early school drop-out rate in the Union, at 15.5 per cent. Disparities in income, infrastructure and access to public services remain significant between regions, between urban and rural areas, and even between counties within the same region.
However, Romania has important strengths compared to other European countries: energy resources - nuclear, hydro, natural gas, renewables and, from 2027, gas from Neptun Deep marine platform in the Black Sea, an IT&C sector which in 2024 generated 6.67 per cent of GDP, 1,477 km of motorways and expressways – compared with around 900 km in 2020, with a further 967 km under construction – and a net benefit of over 72 billion euros from European funds, from accession (2027) until the end of 2025.
Beeld: © Credit: Photo: Government of Romania (gov.ro).
Palatul Victoria – Government Headquarters, Bucharest
What the new government aims to achieve
In general, Romania wants to move from an economy based on imports and cheap labour to one based on domestic production, innovation and technology, and from a predominantly quantitative budgetary adjustment to qualitative consolidation: reducing the deficit through more efficient spending, improved tax collection and the fight against large-scale tax evasion, whilst protecting investment, production and purchasing power. The main goal of the government programme 2026-2028 is to create a stronger economy, capable of carrying a lower deficit and sustainable debt.
The chapter on agriculture and rural development of the government programme provides some more concrete measures along the 4 priority lines mentioned above.
Fair and timely support for farmers
M1. Efficient agricultural administration and payments without delays - reorganisation of the regional structure of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; updating subsidy regulations to remove administrative bottlenecks in payments to farmers; feasibility study on the merger of the two paying agencies.
M2. Maintaining support for the compensation of excise duty on diesel used in agriculture – continuation of the state aid scheme, in order to reduce production costs and support the competitiveness of agriculture.
M3. Compensation for the 2025 drought and a permanent mechanism - topping up the amount from 63 euros/ha to 200 euros/ha; from spring 2027 onwards, a new drought risk management mechanism shall be implemented, developed by the Ministry in collaboration with the World Bank (every farmer receiving direct payments will have a minimum insurance policy per hectare, funded by a 3 per cent deduction from those payments).
M4. Affordable credit: AgroInvest and the ‘farmer’s loan’ - optimisation of the AgroInvest mechanism: state guarantee for investment loans and subsidised interest rates, including for the co-financing of European projects; through the ‘farmer’s loan’, a de minimis scheme for working capital over five years shall be implemented.
M5. More effective support, based on the OECD report - the Ministry shall select support measures offering high added value for farmers and the sector (based on OECD report proposals); support shall gradually be redirected towards commercially viable small and medium-sized farms; facilitation of a fair, phased exit of uncompetitive small farmers and surplus labour; the Ministry shall assess (based on cadastre) the trends in land ownership and the effects of large-scale land acquisitions.
Irrigation, processing and Romanian production
M6. Modern irrigation and green energy in agriculture – rehabilitation of primary and secondary irrigation infrastructure will continue, covering 2.8 million hectares of irrigable land by 2032 (financed through a loan from the European Investment Bank + EU funds; continuation of the €270 million programme for photovoltaic panels on irrigation canals, supplemented by €500 million for agri-food businesses investing in renewable energy.
M7. Increased processing of Romanian agricultural produce – continuation of the INVESTALIM food processing programme; completion of EU approved projects on food processing; through the ROMALIMENT programme, support will continue for the modernisation and expansion of existing processing facilities to reduce food imports.
M8. Livestock farming, vegetables, mountain areas and organic farming – continuation of funding for pig and poultry farms (by 2028 the demand for pork should be fully met by domestic production); launching a support programme for the purchase of heifers on family farms; continuation of programmes for off-season vegetables, for increasing potato and garlic production, with priority funding aimed at reducing the agri-food trade deficit; support for farms in mountain areas; expansion of organic farming (target: 800,000 ha by 2030).
Market Access
M9. Agri-food exports and sanitary and veterinary safety – the Ministry is adopting a sectoral strategy for agri-food exports, with concrete measures; together with the Sanitary-Veterinary Authority (ANSVSA), the ban on sheep exports to third countries will be lifted, through bilateral agreements and the action plan for small ruminant pest (PPR) and sheep pox; introduction of legislation on ear-tagging and real-time traceability of live animal transports to combat fraud.
Young farmers, land and the Romanian countryside
M10. Young farmers and the intergenerational transfer of farms – continuation of programmes supporting young farmers; modernisation of agricultural colleges (in collaboration with the Ministry of Education); providing a monthly employment bonus for young people working in agriculture; creation of a voluntary, life annuity-style scheme (EU funded) for the transfer of small farms from elderly farmers to young farmers or viable family farms; strengthening the RO AKIS platform for innovation and knowledge transfer in agriculture.
M11. A new law on land leasing – adoption of special regulations on the leasing of agricultural land, ensuring equal treatment for lessees and lessors, multi-year contracts and a framework model that preserves contractual freedom; introduction of a land-use exchange contract to facilitate the consolidation of plots, and electronic registers of lease agreements in every administrative-territorial unit, with the publication of average lease rates.
M12. Rural Development Strategy 2026–2036 – adoption (together with local authorities) of a ten-year strategy for Romanian villages going beyond agriculture: addressing depopulation, ensuring access to integrated services, promoting rural digitalisation, enhancing heritage, and diversifying the rural economy through agritourism, crafts, remote working and LEADER groups.
More information
The full text of the agricultural chapter of the new government programme can be found attached/here. ROMANIA – NEW GOVERNMENT PROGRAMME 2026–2028 | Agroberichten Buitenland
For more information, you can reach out to the Netherlands Agricultural Network in Romania via: bkr-lvvn@minbuza.nl