site.btaPlovdiv Hosts First Debate on EU Common Agricultural Policy in Next Programming Period

Plovdiv Hosts First Debate on EU Common Agricultural Policy in Next Programming Period

Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria, May 18 (BTA) - The first of the series of debates enabling Bulgarian farmers to have the real opportunity to discuss the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) over the next programming period was launched Thursday in Plovdiv.

The debates will be held this and next year in different regions of the country under the motto of "CAP after 2020 - Bulgaria's Choice". The forum is organized by the Agroinnovations Institute and IntelliAgro.

The debate in Plovdiv was opened in the presence of Agriculture and Food Minister Roumen Porozhanov and Lilyana Pavlova, Minister for Bulgaria Presidency of the EU Council in 2018, as well as representatives of the agricultural authorities of Austria, Estonia, Italy, Croatia, the Netherlands and Romania.

The good thing is that the agricultural sector in Bulgaria has become one of the leading ones, one that generates a very good GDP and living across the country. According to Porozhanov, it is very important how the funds could best be channeled according to relevant sectors and how to simplify red tape which, in his words, starts from Brussels and the regulations and requirements, and actually leaves both beneficiaries and the Payment Agency in a position to try and catch up.

There is no doubt that the Brexit negotiation process is something new for all and that it will be extremely
comprehensive, Porozhanov added, recalling that the United Kingdom's contribution to the EU budget amounts to some 60,000 million euro a year. "That is why it is important to preserve the share for the sector in the total budget, which now stands at about 40 per cent," the Agriculture Minister commented.

The future agricultural policy is exceedingly important within the framework of Bulgaria's future EU Presidency and it should be considered in three important contexts, Pavlova said. In her opinion, it is important to ask what Cap we have, what we want it to be and how we can and should change it - do we want subsidies to continue and, if yes, how. In the second place, the Minister spoke of the   investments in rural areas, the poorest ones in her opinion, how they could receive support from the point of view of depopulation and the lack of enough employment and workforce. It is very important for the debate about the future CAP to take into account Brexit, as after 2020 this would lead to a reduction of common subsidizing.

Pavlova specified that within Bulgaria's Presidency alone, it will head 53 working groups in the agriculture sector and these have to analyse the existing legislation and answer the most important question: how to simplify procedures and funding rules on one side, and how the new prioritizing by sectors is made.
Pavlova was adamant that subsidies will not be reduced at least until 2020 and that the debate of whether this will happen and to what extent is forthcoming in 2018.