© Georgi Kozhuharov
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Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania insist that the aid for agricultural producers affected by imports from Ukraine should continue throughout 2024. This was announced by Minister Kiril Vatev, quoted by BTA. He met with the agriculture ministers of the four countries as part of his participation in the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels.
“All ministers joined together to insist on the continuation of Ukrainian aid for the entire year 2024, since these are the countries that are actually the most damaged and have identical problems,” he said.
Vatev indicated that he had again spoken with the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, about the ceiling on Ukrainian aid.
“Bulgaria has received a letter from the European Commission, in which it is proposed to increase the ceiling to 280 thousand euros, and until now it was 250 thousand euros. The aid is planned to continue with a period of validity until March 31, 2024. In response through the Ministry of finance, we have expressed a position that there should be no ceiling,” commented the Minister of Agriculture, quoted by BTA.
The European Commissioner for Agriculture supports Bulgaria’s requests for aid due to Ukraine
“For his part, he said that we are the only country in the EU that wants this state aid to have no ceiling, and the regulation states otherwise,” Vatev added.
The two have agreed on November 22 to discuss the topic again in an online format.
At the end of October, after the protests of the agricultural producers, the Council of Ministers allocated BGN 63.5 million in aid.
