site.bta Agriculture Minister Groudev Expects EUR 70-98 Mln to Be Lost under Rural Development Programme

Agriculture Minister Groudev Expects EUR 70-98 Mln to Be Lost under Rural Development Programme

Sofia, October 15 (BTA) - Bulgarian Agriculture and Food
Minister Vasil Groudev expects that between 70 and 98 million
euro will be lost under the EU-funded Rural Development
Programme (2014-2020) by the end of this year.

More than 347 million euro were potentially at a risk of loss by
August 1, 2014, Groudev recalled at a news conference at the
Council of Ministers on Wednesday. For the time being, an
estimated 3.5 million leva will remain unabsorbed under the
Maritime and Fisheries Programme until the end of the year.

Replying to a question, the Minister said that in July Bulgaria
was the last Member State to submit to the European Commission
its new Rural Development Programme. More than 400 comments from
the Commission were received on the programme last week, and a
large part of them have already been addressed. Groudev said
that the new programme does not state clearly the objective that
Bulgaria seeks to achieve by it.