Rural Development Program 2014-2020 to Be Launched in March - Agriculture Minister

The Rural Development Program 2014-2020 will be launched in end-March 2015, according to Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva.

Speaking Thursday at the third annual meeting of Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Producers (BAAP) in the resort of Golden Sands, Taneva specified that the program had not yet been adopted by the government as the coordination process with the Finance Ministry was underway.

She assured livestock breeders that the measures envisaging aid for investments in farms and aid for young farmers would be opened before the official approval of the program by the European Commission.

Meanwhile, Deputy Agriculture Minister Vasil Grudev, as cited by investor.bg, presented the schedule for opening the measures under the program.

He made clear that the total budget of the Rural Development Program 2014-2020 stood at EUR 2.9 B, down by 10.4% from the budget for the 2007-2013 programming period.

Grudev said that a total of 18 measures would be applied under the Rural Development Program 2014-2020.

Bulgaria's Deputy Agriculture Minister reminded that the 2007-2013 Rural Development Program had been launched with a delay of a year and a half, adding that the same thing was happening now.

Taneva explained that the initial version of the program had been amended, with cuts to the budgets of the measures envisaging technical assistance and training and consultation in order to secure more funding for enhancing competitiveness.

She said that no changes could be made to the program from now on or it would be impossible to open the measures in spring.

Taneva also cited the campaign for direct payments per area as a major challenge for the Agriculture Ministry.