Court Re-appoints ex-Head of Bulgaria's Agriculture Fund

Sofia Regional Court has ruled that Miroslav Nikolov, the former head of State Fund Agriculture (SFA), should once again take over the post from which he was dismissed.

Dimitar Grekov, Agriculture Minister in the previous elected government, dismissed Nikolov on July 10 over alleged violations of funding procedures, with some of them related to the EU's Operational Program Rural Development.

Nikolov is now to be paid monthly salaries for the entire period in which he was not in office, the Bulgarian daily Trud reports.

The court believes Nikolov was dismissed by an illegitimate management board, since just a day before July 10 Grekov had officially announced the entire management had submitted resignations.

The SFA is the government agency in charge of providing financial support from EU funds to Bulgaria's agriculture sector using four instruments - direct payments with additional national payments, agricultural market mechanisms support, the Rural Development Program and the Fisheries Program.