site.btaUPDATED Meeting at Agriculture Ministry Finalizes Text of Agreement with Part of Agricultural Sector

Agriculture Minister Kiril Vatev told reporters that an agreement reached between part of the agricultural sector and Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov on Friday was finalized late on Sunday and would be signed on Monday. The representatives of two organizations which have not called off their protests will meet with Vatev Monday noon. 

Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber Chair Kostadin Kostadinov said the finalized version would be available to the media on Monday afternoon. An invitation from the Prime Minister is expected in the late afternoon.

On Friday, at a briefing in the Council of Ministers, after a meeting between Denkov, Agriculture Minister Kiril Vatev and discontented farmers, it was stated that farmers would stop effective protests and an agreement text is expected to be prepared between the representatives of the agricultural sector and the prime minister. 

On Saturday, farmers blocked for two hours the road to the Ilinden - Exochi border crossing near the village of Sadovo on the Bulgarian border with Greece. Representatives of the Bulgarian National Association of Potato Growers, along with grain growers and livestock breeders joined the Saturday protest. 

Earlier on Sunday, the Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber issued a position, in which it distanced itself from the ongoing protests of farmers. "The demands from December are of the Chamber, the others had no such demands. Their demands are a change of the minister, they have no other demands," Dzhikov said regarding the ongoing protests.

Kostadinov confirmed that with the signing of the agreement tomorrow, the Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber organizations stop protest actions, but remain ready to protest. He pointed out that the machines had already been put away on Friday.