site.btaEC's Decision Regarding Forest Swaps between 2007-2009 Is Yet Another Negative Signal from Europe, GERB Says

ESD 17:38:00 06-09-2014
MY1737ES.108
108 POLITICS - GERB - FORESTRY STOCK - SWAPS

EC's Decision Regarding Forest Swaps
between 2007-2009
Is Yet Another Negative Signal from Europe, GERB Says


Sofia, September 6 (BTA) - The European Commission shows that
there is no place in the EU for the practices dating from the
time of the triple coalition government (a former socialist-led
Bulgarian government which was in power at the time). This
decision by the EC is contributing to the seriousness of the
situation in this country because it comes in times of suspended
EU programmes, GERB MEP Mariya Gabriel said during a Saturday
news conference.

After an in-depth investigation, the European Commission has
concluded that a Bulgarian law that allowed the swapping of
privately-owned against publicly-owned forest land was
incompatible with EU State aid rules, the European Commission
said on Friday.

The law, which was in force at the time of Bulgaria's accession
to the EU in January 2007 until January 2009, conferred a
selective advantage on undertakings which benefited from these
forest swap transactions, distorting competition in the Single
Market. Bulgaria must now either recover the incompatible State
aid from the companies that received it or undo the swaps
concerned.

Gabriel, along with Dessislava Taneva and Dimitar Glavchev of
GERB commented Brussels' decision for the media. Bulgaria is
still not ready with the Rural Development Programme, which is
yet to be discussed with the branch and have adequate measures
set in it, Gabriel said. There is still no national legislation
to regulate direct payments, she added. In light of this, risk
for refunding money to the EU emerged. This is yet another
negative signal from Europe, while the EU's trust is easily lost
but hard to win, the MEP said.

Taneva said that this concerns close to 2,400 ha from the state
forestry stock, swapped with privately owned forest land,
according to assessments the EC does not deem to be in line with
the market. She noted that in August of 2009, GERB had imposed
a moratorium on changing the designation of the swapped forest
land, while these estates remained as forests under the new
Forests Act from 2011.

Taneva explained that the State must not conduct a market
assessment on these 132 swaps, which according to Brussels have
been executed at non-market prices and to ask the beneficiaries
- companies, to pay the remaining market value of the acquired
forests. The assessment must be made within two months, while
Bulgaria has one year to prove that the beneficiaries have
reimbursed the difference, or it will have to pay this money
back to the EC in the form of fines, she said, adding that huge
amounts of money are at stake, which the agriculture sector
needs. VI/MY