site.bta99 Per Cent of Funding for Farming in 2015 Absorbed

99 Per Cent of Funding for Farming in 2015 Absorbed

Sofia, January 6 (BTA) - Ninety-nine per cent of the funding for farming in 2015 has been absorbed, the State Agriculture Fund (SAF) said at a news conference Wednesday which presented information about the absorption of EU funding for agriculture in the previous programming period, 2007-2013. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Agriculture and Food Minister Dessislava Taneva were present at the news conference.

SAF Executive Director Roumen Porozhanov said that the payments in the programming period in review, from 2007 to date, from SAF, from the EU funds and the national programmes, total 3,281 million leva.

More than 9,000 million leva were paid in direct payments to farmers in 2007-2014. Porozhanov stressed the animal-breeding sector which in 2015 alone absorbed 273 million leva provided under different programmes.

The funds paid out under the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 stand at 1,345 million leva.

The funding that is going to be lost is 24 million leva.

Porozhanov said that European Commission audits helped SAF streamline the procedures and start the new programming period with clear rules.