Bulgaria Rises against EU's Ever 'Greener' CAP

Bulgaria is ready to exercise its veto power in the Council with respect to CAP reform, according to Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria is raising serious objections against the changes of EU's Common Agricultural Policy which the European Commission has proposed as of 2014, Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov announced.

Naydenov is in Brussels for the talks on the reformed CAP between the 27 EU member-states, the European Commission, and the European Parliament, the Bulgarian National Radio reported.

"Bulgaria will stand firmly for its positions regarding the CAP where decisions can be made only with the agreement of all 27 member states," the Bulgarian Agriculture Minister has pointed out, outlining Bulgaria's objections to the some of the Commission's proposals.

"The intention of the EC to make 30% of the agricultural subsidies for every state conditional on the level of development of "green" agriculture is something that Bulgaria is opposed to. 30% is too much. The Common Agricultural Policy is going greener – but, come on, 30% - it's going to become too green! This is hardly a realistic requirement, and as a member-state Bulgaria is not ready for this!" Naydenov explained.

He further said Bulgaria is against the EC idea to use the agricultural output from 2011 as a reference for the future direct EU subsidies for agriculture.

"Accepting 2011 as a reference year will mean that in the future a certain state will be able to receive subsidies only for the land acreage, for which it got subsidies in 2011. While the older EU member states are not expected to expand their acreage of cultivated land, in Bulgaria this process hasn't been completed. Since 2007, the amount of new land in cultivation in Bulgaria has grown by 24% which ranks Bulgaria first in the EU on this indicator," Naydenov stated.

"Adopting this proposal would mean discrimination especially towards the young people in countries like Bulgaria where there is still room to expand the agricultural business," he added.

The Agriculture Minister said also that Bulgaria will request that the CAP subsidies for Bulgaria be made equal to those for the older EU member states as of 2014, instead of 2016, as previously agreed.

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