"I don't know who this European Union is, but it would be a gift from God if his money brings me water at home," said the widow.

People in her village of Gura Vaii, some 150 km (95 miles) east of Bucharest, subsist by growing wheat and maize but a drought in the last three years has hit production.

A wreck of a Soviet-era disc plough lies in a field next to her tiny house. Most of the villagers live in poverty.

"Nobody cares about us," says Ghevciu, bent under a heavy bundle of branches picked for her cooking fire.

Romania, where half of the 21.6 million population does not have access to running water, is striving to reform its backward agricultural sector, one of the hardest tasks as it moves towards EU membership.

Around 40 percent of the Balkan state's impoverished population depends on farming to make a living.

This month an EU summit in Copenhagen invited 10 mostly ex-communist East European states to join the EU in 2004 and pledged to support laggards Romania and Bulgaria to help them overcome their communist legacy and enter the bloc in 2007.

A pre-membership funding scheme known as SAPARD is ready to spend more than one billion euros ($1.03 billion) in Romania by 2006 as part of the EU's effort to prepare candidate members for accession.

The money will be used to modernise rural infrastructure and improve the processing and marketing of farm products. But even spending EU money in Romania can stumble on endemic corruption, lack of expertise and bureaucracy.

"We don't have the culture of projects. Romanians want to see the money, not draw up projects. It's deeply-rooted behaviour," Romania's chief EU negotiator Vasile Puscas said.

CORRUPTION A FACT

Corruption, a daily fact of life for Romanians who earn on average less than $100 a month, a cash culture and lack of expertise in drawing up big projects are hurdles in getting the badly needed funds.

SAPARD covers 75 percent of the cost of most projects but coming up with the remaining money is often a problem.

Romania must implement projects totalling 300 million euros by the end of 2003 or it may lose any unspent money. So far, authorities have drafted 200 projects worth 130 million euros.

The second biggest recipient of SAPARD funds after Poland among post-communist EU candidates, Romania has had problems in complying with standards but is finally getting rural aid of around 150 million euros a year until 2006.

The EU is committed to increase the shared overall pre-accession aid for Romania and Bulgaria by 20 percent to 1.23 billion euros in 2004 against 2003. Aid will grow to 1.33 billion euros in 2005 and to 1.43 billion in 2006.

But analysts say the state agency distributing the farm aid has a tough job in absorbing amounts overdue since 2000 and 2001, as local mayors want to avoid coming under the control of the authorities and the EU's strict monitoring of projects it funds.

Even Prime Minister Adrian Nastase has admitted corruption was a problem and warned that some might seek to access such funds illegally by acting as consultants for small communities unable to draft SAPARD projects on their own.

"Attempts are being made to set up relations with parasite firms, sometimes with the of local authorities," Nastase said.

In Romania, as in Poland, allegations of cronyism at its SAPARD agency have raised fears that the EU money could be misdirected by corrupt bureaucrats.

SUB-STANDARD PROJECTS

But even if corruption is cured, lack of expertise remains a long-term problem. Officials from the agency say many of the projects submitted so far from local authorities across the country are hastily drafted and do not meet basic demands.