site.btaAgriculture Minister to Protesting Farmers: We Have Paid Out Everything
Agriculture and Food Minister Kiril Vatev, who was in Albena on Thursday while animal farmers held a protest march in Sofia demanding him and his staff to step down, commented from the Black Sea resort that everything that had to be paid to the farmers was paid.
Vatev said: "The problem is that a handful of people want us to violate an EU regulation. We cannot violate the regulation, because we will be punished for that." He added that everything possible has been done, but the protesters have raised impossible demands.
He said: "We need normal dialogue, but it takes normal thinking on both sides. I am determined not to resign."
The protesters demand immediate payment of de minimis aid and compensation for damage inflicted by the Ukraine war, and an increase of aid levels back to the old rates.
Vatev was in Albena for an agricultural seminar organized by the National Grain Growers Association. The seminar is taking place on Thursday and Friday to discuss sustainable grain production amid climate and market change.
/PP/
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