Minister: Bulgaria's EU Rural Development Funds Not at Risk

Bulgarian Agriculture Minister (pictured) says there is no risk of European Rural Development funding, a position supported by EU spokesperson Michael Mann. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov has announced on Thursday that there was no danger of EU funding under the Program for Rural Development being stopped.

In saying this, he has contradicted his statement one day earlier that, because of violation of the previous leadership of the Agriculture Fund, Bulgaria could lose money under the program.

Meanwhile, European Commission spokesman on agriculture Michael Mann confirmed that the audit carried out in Bulgaria last year, had identified problems that were within acceptable, normal limits.

According to him, they could not be compared with problems in previous years, when payments under SAPARD had to be stopped.

Mann described the letter of the Agriculture Directorate to the Bulgarian Government as part of normal procedure after each audit.

"There is no specific warning in this letter - it is part of a normal procedure of giving guidelines on the basis of what we established during the audit.

"There are no reasons for warnings from the European Union for the moment. There are neither specific dates for action nor deadlines that must be complied with urgently, nor specific recommendations to Bulgarian authorities," the spokesman said.

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