EC to Unfreeze Pre-Accession Farm Cash for Bulgaria

Barroso (left) and Borisov (right) are going to have their first meeting on September 10. Photo by BGNES

Payments worth millions of euros under the EU-backed programme SAPARD will be restarted on September 10 following the first meeting between Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.

This was announced on Monday by Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov, who is in Brussels for the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council.

Minister Naydenov conferred with European Commission (EC) agri commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel, who, according to him, gave clear indications that the money, a total of EUR 140 M, will be unblocked.

It was not immediately clear whether the whole sum or just the payments for well-conceived and sound projects will be given the green light.

"Commissioner Boel agreed that Bulgaria has met all requirements for unfreezing the payments and even expressed her admiration at the steps taken by the government," the minister said on Monday.

According to the minister the change of the leadership of Agriculture State Fund, which manages SAPARD funds and was in the hands of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party for eight years, as well as the crack down on executors of suspicious projects under the program convinced Brussels Bulgaria has cleaned up its act.

The European Union froze reimbursements in agricultural funding last year, saying Bulgaria fails to curb frauds with EU funds.

 

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