The issue of the European funding in support of the Bulgarian Agriculture and Forestry has been discussed on 23 March 2011 at a Joint Meeting of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds and the Agriculture and Forests Committee.

An accent has been put on the following concrete questions in the framework of the discussion carried out on the topic:

• The Minister of Agriculture and Food Miroslav Naydenov has outlined the main directions that should be followed in the position of the Republic of Bulgaria regarding the debate on the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU for the period 2014 – 2020;

• The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Svetlana Boyanova has presented the current state and the progress achieved under the Rural Development Program 2007 – 2013. By now, around 33% of the Program budget has been contracted and around 19% of the funds available for the period 2007 – 2013 have been paid. Measures for the additional optimization of the Program management and implementation have been taken, incl.: simplification of application procedures, introduction of higher decentralization in the evaluation process and control of small projects, etc. The improved communication between the state administration structures and the Program beneficiaries has also been reported;

• The Executive Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Executive Agency Yavor Nedev has informed the MPs on the current state under the Fisheries Development Operational Program 2007 – 2013. By mid-March 2011 46 projects have been approved for funding under the Program, over 19,1 mln. leva (9,16% of the funds available) have been contracted and over 8,2 mln. leva (3,94% of the funds available) have been paid;


• The Executive Director of the State Fund Agriculture Svetoslav Simeonov has marked the main issues concerning the closure of SAPARD for which the 5-year monitoring period is running now.

The presentation and discussion of the information on the topic about the support for the Bulgarian Agriculture and Fisheries is a part of 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 materials and the debates of the meetings 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 hearing can be found at (available only in Bulgarian):

http://www.parliament.bg/bg/parliamentarycommittees/members/240/reports/ID/2606