On October 20, at a joint meeting of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds and the Agriculture and Forests Committee at the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria, a hearing on the following topics has been held:

• The progress in the absorption of the EU funds under the Rural Development Program 2007 – 2013 and the Operational Program for the Development of the Fisheries Sector 2007 – 2013;

• Development in the closure of SAPARD.

The joint meeting of the two parliamentary committees has been co-chaired by Ms. Desislava Taneva – Chairwoman of the Agriculture and Forests Committee and Ms. Monika Panayotova – Chairwoman of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds. The meeting has been joined by: Mr. Miroslav Naydenov – Minister of Agriculture and Food, Ms. Svetlana Boyanova – Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food, Mr. Tzvetan Dimitrov - Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food, Mr. Svetoslav Simeonov – Executive Director of the State Fund „Agriculture” and other representatives of the state administration structures engaged in the management of the abovementioned programs.

The presentation and discussion of the information on the above Programs complements the series of hearings before the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds aimed at exerting political control over the activity of the state administration structures engaged in the management of the European funds in the country. The information from the hearings will be used in the elaboration of the Interim and Annual Reports of the Committee on the absorption of the EU funds in the Republic of Bulgaria.

The Report from the joint hearing can be found at (available only in Bulgarian):

http://www.parliament.bg/?page=ns&lng=bg&nsid=5&action=show&Type=cmStan&SType=show&gid=240&id=2261