Bulgaria Govt Takes BGN 120 M from Science to Give to Agriculture

GERB MP Desislava Taneva has announced the shift of funds from science to agriculture. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s Budget Committee has voted for re-allocating BGN 120 M from the money for the Academy of Sciences to agriculture subsidies.

This has been announced by Desislava Taneva, MP from the ruling GERB party and Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, after Monday’s meeting of the Budget Committee.

Thus, the total amount of subsidies for agriculture producers in the 2010 budget will be BGN 220 M. The government is going to decide later what part of this money will go to milk producers and to grain producers.

The cattle raising farmers have already threatened mass protests on December 15, 2009, unless the government allocates at least BGN 90 M from the subsidies for them.

“Most probably some of the different agriculture sectors will not be happy but this was the maximum that we managed to achieve, it is only normal that everyone will have higher expectations,” Taneva said.

The decision to shift funds from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences comes amidst a heated public debate about the efficiency of the BAS and its institutes, as well as about the lack of money for boosting science and research in Bulgaria and for educational reform.

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