Bulgaria Expects EC to Unfreeze Pre-Accession Farm Cash

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 are expected to be restarted on September 10 following the first meeting between Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and the President of the European Commission, Jose Barroso.

This was announced at the beginning of the week 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.

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.

On Thursday, the second day and the culmination of the visit of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to Brussels, he will also confer with European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek and EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

European Commission officials have made it clear that issues concerning not only the future of Bulgaria, but of the European Union as a whole will top the agenda of all meetings.

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