Study Visit at the Payments Agency in Lithuania

Between September 16 and 21, the Deputy Director of the Agency for intervention and Payments for Agriculture (AIPA), Nicolae CIUBUC, as well as heads of agency’s subdivisions visited the Lithuanian National Payments Agency (NMA) in Vilnius, Lithuania, in order to get acquainted with the new technologies and programs implemented by the Lithuanian partners.
The delegation had a complex agenda, including theoretical activities and field trips. Thus, the members of the working group visited the Centre of Agriculture Information and Rural Business, where all the electronic registers are kept. During the visit, the Center’s Director, Gintaras SNIOKA, talked about the structure, preparation, registration and interconnection of the existing electronic registers with other systems, among which NMA. The members of the working group were familiarized with the Registers of management of EU’s agriculture support and rural development funds for Lithuania: the agricultural machines and facilities register, as well as the livestock, undertakings and agricultural plantations registers.
During the visit, the parties discussed on the lessons learned after Lithuania implemented the SAPARD program, as well as the administration systems implemented by the Agency. The officials also made several field trips to one of the farms in the region, where they were informed about the technologies and methods applied in horticulture, cereal farming and cattle breeding, as well as about the on-the-site inspections. The agenda of the visit also included the meeting with the management of the Lithuanian Agency of Interventions, Mr Germanas Lamsodis; the Moldovan delegation expressed its intention to take over the relevant Lithuanian good practices. Also during this visit all heads of the subdivisions had the opportunity to meet their counterparts.
Last but not least, after a number of joint consultations, the Lithuanian party presented proposals and recommendations related to the procedure guidelines worked out by the AIPA subdivisions, the job descriptions, as well as the applications administration/collecting, assessment and control procedures. During the visit, the importance to implement the Twinning/ TAIEX instruments within AIPA was stressed, the Lithuanian counterpart confirming its availability for a possible collaboration.