site.btaBulgarian Farmers Union Warns about Agriculture Ministry Delaying Changes to Strategic Plan

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food is delaying changes to its Strategic Plan for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas for the period 2023-2027 in Bulgaria, according to the Bulgarian Farmers Union, which is part of the largest European agricultural organization - Copa Cogeca.

"There is no clarity as to what is happening. It is already the end of August, and there are still no materials provided to the branch organizations on the amendments to the plan," said Georgi Stoyanov, chairman of the Bulgarian Farmers Union, quoted in a message to the media. He explained that the materials should be reviewed and approved in early September by the Monitoring Committee. After that, the Ministry should comply with the decision taken by the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture in the 49th National Assembly to provide these amendments to the deputies by September 11. The deadline for submitting the draft amendments to the European Commission is September 30, 2023.

The organization insists on achieving a fairer distribution of direct payments in favour of production areas, eco-schemes, sectoral interventions, innovations aimed at supporting small and medium-sized farms, the production of Bulgarian fruits and vegetables, milk, meat and honey. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture should outline specific measures for national support for the milk, meat, fruit and vegetable and honey sectors, which are severely affected by the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

The branch expects conclusions and recommendations on how far the initial priorities in the Strategic Plan, investments and focus direction continue to be relevant and in which aspects they will be changed.

Stoyanov explained that it is a new practice to require declarations of representativeness without having a law on branch organizations to regulate this activity. "As long as there are no legal requirements, the Ministry of Agriculture is obliged to work with all organizations," explained Stoyanov, giving as an example the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Programme, where information is kept under wraps and the industry is not invited to councils and meetings. This is expected to result in huge losses for Bulgaria in the amount of about EUR 80 million, which will not be absorbed until the end of the year.

The Bulgarian Farmers Union stated that it will turn to the European Commission and to Copa Cogeca about the deepening problems in  the relations between the Ministry of Agriculture and the branch organizations.